Imran Yusuf on theatre and loving Pakistan’s national obsession

London-based playwright talks about the journey of his first play.

KARACHI: His colleagues at the newspaper thought that he was too eccentric for writing headlines; students at the media school he taught at believed he will make headlines some day. Writer Imran Yusuf may be been a Londoner, but Karachi is where his heart is – both literally and metaphorically.

Formerly sports editor at The Express Tribune, he now works as a content writer for an engineering website. His wife lives in Karachi; a place that not only continues to inspire him, but has also served as the platform where Yusuf formally established himself as a playwright.

The Urdu translation of his play, STUMPED!!!, a story based on cricket and controversies, was presented by National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) students. The play breathed new life into Pakistani theatre, which was suffering from an overdose of clichés and rip-offs. At a recently held interview at the writer’s residence, he talked about his journey with STUMPED!!!.

“It was faithful in terms of direct language, and somehow, the rhythm, the idioms, the authenticity naturally elevated the whole play,” said Yusuf.  “Apart from some direct translations which you tend to take out as the production goes, I think [Napa graduate] Fawad Khan did a great job with translation.”

Yusuf feels that the aesthetic tools that accompanied the production of STUMPED!!! were well-gauged by the play’s director Zain Ahmed, and were toned down wherever they appeared overbearing. Yusuf, who visits Pakistan frequently, set the play in a place called “Qabristan”, which was his reflection of Pakistan and says a lot about his perspective of this country.

“The play definitely stems out of an almost morbid bitterness, but at the same time, it comes out of true love for this place [Pakistan],” elaborated Yusuf. “I think if the play keeps running with a bit of bitterness that keeps poking you as you desperately run towards the finishing line, it can heighten the quality of the play,” he added.

Drawing parallels between UK and Pakistan, Yusuf said, “When one person gets murdered in London its headline news – you know his name, you know his wife’s name, you know he owns a Labrador called Frankie. But in Pakistan, if someone is shot dead and if he is not a bigwig, then they end up becoming a statistic. This phenomenon had an impact on me and has also translated into the play I have written.”

Yusuf doesn’t find the musicals Karachi presents attractive; he expects something very different when entering a theatre hall. For him, cricket however, is the right device to convey theatrically what he feels about Pakistanis.

“Cricket was the lens through which I understood Pakistan,” Yusuf said. “I would have been more comfortable in setting the play in the drawing room of a rich burger bacha who has parties where Absolut Vodka is served, but I don’t find that interesting and I certainly don’t find that reflective of a wider segment of the Pakistani society.”

Since cricket is more of a man’s domain, it was also his way of commenting on the masculinity of the Pakistani society, as the only female in the play is planted for the exploration of all other male characters.

Yusuf’s future plans include forwarding STUMPED!!! to theatre companies in the UK and prohibiting his wife, Shandana Minhas, who is also a famous Pakistani writer, from writing plays because he thinks that she is just too good at it. “The hunger of an upcoming artist, film-maker or writer in Pakistan is 50 times more than that of a youngster in the UK and this will eventually pay off,” concluded the optimistic Yusuf.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2013.

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