Stumped!!!: Cricket, politics and conspiracies

Play written by London-based playwright wins first prize, performances begin May 28.

KARACHI:

Cricket and anything related to it is what Pakistanis are always game for. This sentiment has been shared amongst peers huddled around a radio set listening keenly to the commentary; passed down to generations, it bridges the age gap and is reflected in the beads of sweat rolling down a teenaged cricket lover’s face on a sweltering day.

Out of the 15 entries submitted to the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) as part of the institute’s first playwriting competition aimed at staging original Pakistani plays and discovering talented playwrights, the cricket-based play titled Stumped!!! was given the coveted first prize.

Apart from the prize money of Rs100,000, the play will be performed from May 28 till the June 9 everyday from 8pm onwards at the Napa auditorium. The winning playwright, Imran Yusuf, who was born in London, studied tragicomedy, both the easy way — while studying the works of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov — and the hard way — while living in Karachi.

Yusuf, who is currently working as a content writer for an engineering website, was formerly sports editor at The Express Tribune.

At a press conference held at the premises of Napa on Friday, play director Zain Ahmed and Napa’s Director Programmes Arshad Mehmud shed light on the storyline and cast.

“We got around 15 entries as part of the competition and out of all of them Stumped!!! was the most engaging play, tailor-made according to the dynamics of the stage,” expressed Ahmed.

The play is about our collective obsession as a nation with politics, cricket and conspiracy theories. The comedy is set in a fictional place called ‘Kabristan’, where the national cricket team is set to play the world cup final. Chicu, the captain of the Kabristan cricket team, entrapped Sam, a young fast bowler of the team, to bowl in favour of the rival team, India.



The story, which revolves around Sam’s journey into the politically-charged world of high-stakes gambling and mafia, ends with his death. Subsequently, a lot of lies are spread against Sam at a press conference called by the culprits.

The play was originally written in English and later translated in Urdu by Fawad Khan, a Napa graduate. The cast of the play includes Sunil Shankar, Rauf Afridi, Bakhtawar Mazhar and Hammad Khan.

When asked why this title was chosen for the play, Mehmud elaborated, “Getting stumped is by far the most upsetting dismissal in the game of cricket. The batsman gets beaten by the height [length] of the delivery and also by the spin [line] of the ball to get dismissed in the most clueless fashion — something that will be depicted in a lot of things in this play.”

Artistic Director of Napa’s Repertory Theatre Company, said at the press conference that apart from the play, other happenings — ranging from very experimental to very orthodox performances — are lined up in next year’s schedule.

In June, Napa will collaborate with DadaDali Productions for an original play called The Portrait of Rumi. “We will be pushing our boundaries with this one [play] because firstly, it is a very unconventional and experimental play and secondly it is in English,” said Ahmed.

Napa will also collaborate with well-known dancer and choreographer Joshinder Chaggar for a contemporary dance drama called Conversations 2. In the month of Ramazan, the academy is planning to arrange two qawwali nights on two Saturdays in which the qawwali session will begin after taraweeh and continue till Sehri next morning.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2013.

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