Alladin to look for his lamp in the city of lights

Arabian nights will be making an anticipated comeback with NAPA’s latest production from February 22 to May 10

KARACHI:

Attention kids: Setting the boisterous Genie free in the city of lights, Alladin is raring to grace Karachi. Arabian Nights will be making an anticipated comeback as the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) gets geared up to take audiences on an enchanting journey across the city of Agrabah — with the stage-production, Alladin.

The play, which has been directed by Napa faculty member Uzma Sabeen and written by Shoaib Hashmi, will be staged from February 22 to May 10 at Napa.

In conversation with The Express Tribune, artistic director of Napa Repertory Theatre (NRT), Zain Ahmed unravels the reason behind staging a play specifically intended for children.



“Children, today, have no live entertainment. There are no puppet shows or music shows happening in the country.” He further adds, “The only source of entertainment children have these days is watching cartoons such as Chota Bheem and Batman and there is no local content.”

He notes that it was imperative that people created more indigenous content otherwise there was a danger of Pakistani children drifting away from their own culture. “How can we expect children to know about their culture and heritage when they aren’t exposed to it or taught about it,” asserts Ahmed.

Napa has previously staged a children’s play titled Ali Baba Aur Chalees Chor, which proved to be a stirring success, so much so that the organisers had to extend the number of show times.

“This time, we have purposely kept additional shows to ensure that everyone gets a chance to come and see the shows,” said Zain Ahmed.

Apart from playing regular shows for general public on Sunday mornings, the academy plans to organise specials shows for schools on weekdays.

Stage actor Farhan Alam Siddiqui, who will be seen essaying the role of the antagonist, Samree Jadoogar, in the play discussed the challenges of performing in front of an audience mainly comprising children.

“It is completely different to that of when you’re doing a play for adults as children tend to be very honest. If they like something they will appreciate it but if they don’t like it than they will make their feelings obvious,” said Siddiqui.

Describing his character as “the biggest obstacle” in the path of Alladin and Genie, he talks about how he intends to approach the character differently in comparison to his previous roles. “When you are acting in a play for children, you need to let go of the adult inside you and connect with your inner child to ensure that you are able to connect with your audiences,” states Siddiqui.

On the other hand, Ahmed believes that the major difference between plays for children and adults is the “complexity of dialogue”.

“In such plays, you need to keep the dialogue simple since children tend to have shorter attention spans. You cannot get very philosophical but at the same time you need to make sure that the dialogues are not demeaning and it doesn’t feel as if you are talking down to the audiences,” remarks Ahmed.

The artistic director cautioned that a few shows of Alladin may not be staged on Sundays due to the forthcoming festival.

Apart from the adaptation of Alladin for stage, Napa is also getting the stage ready for the International Theatre Festival which will be held between from March 12 to 31.

Ahmed revealed that Napa also plans to launch a special unit which will specifically cater to theatre for children in November later this year.

The primary cast for the play also includes Hammad Sartaj as Genire, Haris Khan as Alladin and Erum Bashir as a character very similar to Jasmine.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th,  2015.

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