Stage adaptation : Winds of peace in the face of war

The bilingual play entertains with dance but falls flat on theme.

ISLAMABAD: The bilingual play, “Winds of Peace”, elects for love and peace in the face of war and hate through music and dance. Two-time director Raheel Khan Lodhi adapted the plot from Sydney Sheldon’s “Sands of Time” for a more local crowd to middling success at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts auditorium.

Packed to the hilt with entertaining dances around renowned singles (Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” and Lionel Ritchie’s “Hello” make an appearance), the numbers get somewhat distracting to peace’s theme.

The play centres on four young nuns who are abruptly forced to leave the security of their convent into the hostile world they abandoned long ago. In the real world they find themselves serving as pawns in the violent struggle between the outlawed Basque underground terrorist movement, led by the charismatic Jamie Miro (Faisal) and the army, commandeered by vengeful Col. Roman Acoca (Tariq) working under the aegis of the Devil (Nabeel) intent on total destruction.

Four subplots primarily focusing on the characters’ love lives detract from the major plotlines which would in theory work for a play focused on the perils of war, but here serve as minor distractions that are not suitably tied up leaving loose threads and unanswered questions in their wake.

The play ends with Acoca and Miro shaking hands agreeing to make peace not war, but there is no development on how the reconciliation takes place other than idealised dialog about how war is futile.

However, despite the play’s many loose ends it is a worthy attempt by the crew and a largely young and untested cast who brought an appropriate amount of vibrancy and enthusiasm to their performances. Notably, Nabeel’s quirky and eccentric performance brought Michael Keaton in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” to mind.

While Lodhi stressed that the play did not consciously allude to the Pakistan Army or external forces, the suggestions were implicit and largely understood by the audience.

With a Rs 14 lakh budget and little to no corporate sponsorship, the play runs to two and a half hours which could significantly be reduced by doing more with less. Reduced stress on dialog and dances, particularly the narrator who spells things out that can just as easily be shown through the performance, will help maintain interest and attention.

That said the play was well received by Islamabad audiences although the rain put a damper on the turn out. “Winds of Peace” will continue to run at until January 10.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2012.