The festival, organised by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop from November 24 to November 30, gives students from schools across Punjab a chance to perform in front of an audience. Thursday’s events included a film exhibit by BNU students, a play titled ‘Aur Kitne Jalianwala Bagh…’ by UMT and a dance performance by the City School.
By and large the students explored themes pertaining to violence, corruption and insecurity. “Whether or not it seems a cliché, these are our concerns. The situation in the country has informed the art being churned out by the youth,” said Haider Nawaz, a volunteer at the event.
The security arrangements for the event are tight, with check points placed outside and inside the main gate, outside and inside the main hallway entrances in the corridors, and inside the individual theatres. “No one is taking any chances. If that means someone’s bag will be searched seven times, so be it,” said Rehana, a guest.
But the event has not drawn large crowds and lacks the usual exuberance and colour of Rafi Peer festivals.
Students explored every microcosm of Pakistan’s plight that they could touch upon, from BNU films portraying petty corruption and bicycle theft, to the UMT play that compares and contrasts the 1919 rampage in Jallianwala Bagh, where scores were murdered under the orders of a British general, with present day Pakistan. The youth festival this year seems to highlight the fact that Pakistan’s youth, like the rest of the country, is focusing on surviving the storms that are shaking the country.
“We are still patriotic Pakistanis, but we are patriotic in the sense that we want to go back to a better time,” said Ali, one of the performers. “There is no more room for denial that we are in a crisis. It doesn’t get any worse than this and we tried not to hide that in our work.”
Evening performance
Mandwa Theatre, a group of young theatre enthusiasts, staged Jaman ka Payr from around 8:15pm. The play was about a man who gets stuck under a fallen tree trunk, but touched on a whole host of themes government offices, press photographers, clerks, the new generation, beggars, poets and bureaucrats, to name a few. Ultimately this resulted in a lack of focus and the play dragged on a bit. Members of the audience also criticised the acting, saying it was overdramatic.
Publishd in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2010.
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