Annual play: Westminster students adapt Cooney’s ‘Out of Order’ into a thrilling extravaganza

The play was performed for two days at the Islamabad Club auditorium.


Annual play: Westminster students adapt Cooney’s ‘Out of Order’ into a thrilling extravaganza

ISLAMABAD:


The students of Westminster College put up an entertaining performance during their annual play on Friday. Ray Cooney’s “Out of Order”, which ran for two nights at the Islamabad Club auditorium, was the dramatics society’s fourth addition to a robust string of plays.


The action takes place in a suite in London’s Westminster Hotel, when government minister Richard Willey decides he has a lot of love to share, and plans a tryst with a pretty secretary who works for the opposition.

Things go disastrously wrong, with a conniving waiter, a suspicious hotel manager, an alert private detective, an angry wife, a furious husband, a bungling secretary, an unconscious nurse and a dead body to deal with — certainly not the meeting Willey had planned.

Incidentally, Cooney’s most recognised play, “Run for Your Wife”, also features a cheating husband in a key role.

The play, directed by Salma Mir, definitely scores points on enthusiasm as the young actors’ energy seemed unending, with a constant barrage of fast dialogues — the actors tried their best to keep up a British accent, but spoke too fast to maintain it. The zippy scenes featured actors quickly entering and exiting the main set.

Annual play01-Photo-Muhammad Javaid-Express

The costumes and sets were impressive to say the least, with a retro 70s vibe. PHOTO: MUHAMMAD JAVAID/EXPRESS

However, with such a fast-paced play and spirited dialogue, the ending fell a little flat with an abrupt all’s well that ends well scenario coming out-of-the-blue. Perhaps a strong ending would have done justice to the young actors’ efforts.

However

The costumes and sets were impressive to say the least, with a retro 70s vibe which is definitely a far better effort than many of the plays one gets to witness at the club.

There were some hilarious scenes with spot-on comic timing that had the audience clapping and laughing in unison, right down to the waiter’s slapstick one-liners, with Cooney’s one liners sometimes needing a little bit of parental control.

Shehzad Ali played Richard Willey, Ayesha Iftikhar played Jane Worthington, Musa Azhar played George Pidgen, Sakeena played Maid, Dua Absar played Nurse Foster, Anum Masood played Pamela Willey, Sarmad Hassan played Rannie Worthington, Nomaan played Manager, Xivraiz Ayaz played the dead detective and Hamza Lodhi played waiter.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2012. 

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