KARACHI: There wasn’t a single audience member who didn’t get a chance to laugh during this performance and in this critic’s opinion; the one play not to miss this season is National Academy of Performing Arts’ (Napa) Khel Jari Hai.
The play has been adapted from Rick Abbot’s Play On and has been translated into Urdu by playwright Babar Jamal and was directed by veteran TV artist Rahat Kazmi.
Khel Jari Hai is being staged at the Arts Council Auditorium and tells the story of how actors, directors, writers all have to come together to make a performance come alive but a lack of unity can lead to massive confusion.
The play is a comedy told effortlessly by Napa graduates and students who played their roles commendably. Special mention must be given to Akbar Islam as director Naveed Jafari, Ali Sheikh as Shahnoor, whose comical tone and gestures will for remembered a long time, and Ali Kazmi who took on the role of Wajahat Mirza, the young desperate lover. And last but not least, credit must be given to Mahwish Siddiq who acted remarkably as Umdah Khanum and captivated the audience.
Tanveer Abbas, who also designed the stage, and Rauf Afridi did well in their supporting roles of the associate director and the Pathan respectively.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, Akbar Islam, said, “I was very excited to be a part of the play and the role I had to enact was that of a director who is a very difficult character to perform on stage. I had to lend a different perspective to every single act I performed, not forgetting for awhile that I was an actor come director on stage.”
Playwright Babar Jamal said, “I had to write two plays within a single play, one based on the contemporary era and the other based in India. So the language, the style, everything was slightly different and difficult as I have never done a play within a play like this before. My team was very supportive and the cast came together to give an amazing performance.”
The play runs at Arts Council Auditorium from 22 October to 31 October 2010 and a part of the profit of the proceeds will go towards helping flood victims.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2010.
COMMENTS (3)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ