The play revolves around love, lust and lies. PHOTO: PUBLICITY.
KARACHI:
Zoya has a secret. For years, she has been cheating on her husband with his best friend. As the story unfolds, each of the characters betray each other in some way in a case of bad faith. This brutal mix of deception, guilt and love were seen on Sunday in the play Faraib, held at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) auditorium.
Directed by Uzma Sabeen, Faraib is an adaptation of the British playwright Harold Pinter’s 1978 play Betrayal — a story about his own extramarital affair. It was brilliantly adapted in Urdu by Zohair Raza for the ongoing Napa festival.
The main characters of the play are Ramiz (Rauf Afridi), Zoya (Joshinder Chagger), and Zain (Fawad Khan). Faraib not only highlights how a woman longs for love and commitment, but also how men often get away with lies without losing their friends or family.
Stepping away from his often light and cheery characters in former Napa plays, Afridi flawlessly performed his role as a serious husband. He was witty, sarcastic and talkative. Khan will make any girl fall in love with his role as a charming, composed and family-oriented man, who becomes Zoya’s love interest. He chooses to keep all his relationships in hand; whether it’s marriage, friendship or his affair. As Zain, he seduces his best-friend’s wife and makes her fall in love with him — an affair which lasts five years.
Chagger is hands down the star of the show. She plays the role of a wife who knows how to seduce and manipulate, yet hold her ground. As Zoya, she cares for her husband but loves Zain more. Her role in the play is of a fun-loving wife who likes to shop, read and host parties.
Faraib runs in reverse chronological order for one hour and 30 minutes, exploring the intricacies of relationships, acceptance, lies and true happiness.
The set consists of two bed rooms, a seating arrangement as a lounge and a restaurant. The technical assistant, Shahjahan Narejo, gets due credit for his efforts, however the sound needed to be cranked-up a few notches for the full auditorium. For the background music, the director chose the perfect instrumental piece titled Sad Violin which intensified the play’s preceding acts.
“It’s not a flashback play,” said Sabeen, the director. “It happened in reverse order and I believe that this is happening in our own times — in Karachi. Anyone can easily miss out on how the true story reveals itself, if not viewed from the very beginning.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2013.
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