Acting out: Lahore Theatre Festival kicks off

Includes skits, dance performances by various colleges, organisations.

LAHORE:

Noisy audience, power outages and technical errors did not seem to affect the performers at the Lahore Theatre Festival that started at the Alhamra Art Council on Tuesday.

Performers from various organisations and schools displayed drama and skits on social issues. Shah Sharabeel was the chief guest at the event.

The festival, scheduled to begin at 4 pm, started at around 6:30 pm due to frequent power cuts and lighting issues. The audience, tired of waiting, resorted to incessant shouting and whistling. They calmed when the performance finally began.

The festival opened with The Wheelchair Girl, a musical performance based on the life of a handicapped girl who falls in love but ends up being alone. The play was organised by Voice, an organisation for education of special children.

The musical play was followed by two performances by students of Allama Iqbal Medical College (AIMC). Moeez Shah, the AIMC dramatic society vice president, said they had tried to focus on human civilisation through the acts.

The first performance, received with a big applause, stood out for the actors’ elaborate and appropriate costumes. The play depicted mankind’s journey from the Stone Age, through Roman, Islamic, Mughal and Colonial times, into the modern era.

However, towards the end it made an uneven transition into the Pakistani political scene, where the segregation of the west and the east was in sharp focus. An actor playing Asif Ali Zardari walked onstage, followed immediately by Imran Khan. He dragged Zardari off the stage and made peace with both sides of the segregated world. Khan’s entry was received with huge applause. This was followed by a dance performance, also by AIMC students, entitled Glow in the Dark.

Later, brothers Hamud and Saud Ahmad, students at the Services Institute of Medical Sciences, took over the stage and sang Sounds of Silence.

A seven-minute sufi dance was performed by some students of Comsats University, followed by a seven-minute dharees, a form of folk dance.

A joint performance was staged by students of the University of Lahore and Voice representatives. The play, Peace, was about events related to terrorism. It showed the sufferings of a family that had lost a loved one to a bomb blast.

A dancer later tried to depict the challenge of finding employment in a solo performance.

Abdul Mohsin, chief organiser of the festival, said the show was initially scheduled to be held in December 2011, but was delayed due to rehearsal issues. Mohsin said the festival aimed at encouraging arts and theatre among students.

The festival, free-of charge, will continue today with performances by the University of South Asia and the Government College University.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2012.