Shankar has proven his credentials as a director with plays, such as Court Martial, a scene from which is pictured above. PHOTOS: PUBLICITY
“Forget about freedom of expression, I think people don’t even have the freedom to breathe nowadays,” laments stage actor-director Sunil Shankar, while talking about his latest play Metaphysical Karachi. Shankar, who recently staged his production at the ongoing Karachi Mubarak Festival and hopes to take it to different academic institutions, says the play reflects on the country’s conundrum – the shackles on free speech. He is also set to collaborate with Nida Butt on a musical adaptation of East Is East, written by British-Pakistani actor and playwright Ayub Khan-Din.
Terming the play as a dark comedy, he recalls how the play evolved from a three-minute-long monologue into a half-hour production. “The idea for Metaphysical Karachi came to me when I was working on the play Blah and Blah for the Napa Repertory Theatre (NRT),” he says. “The play had a monologue, which seemed to fit perfectly into the current situation in the country,” he adds.
Shankar shares the second half of the play has been partly inspired by David Ivyes’ play Philadelphia and an unnamed Jaun Elia poem. “Philadelphia explores this idea of confusion in society and how people tend to misinterpret each other. For instance, if you ask someone to close the door, they will open it. The Jaun Elia poem is part of the monologue, which I feel suits the play,” notes Shankar.
Having proven his credentials as a director with plays, such as Court Martial and Equus, Shankar feels that Metaphysical Karachi underlines the themes he has previously explored, but in a different light. “More than Court Martial, which was a courtroom drama, the themes and conflicts presented in Metaphysical are similar to the ones I have depicted in Equus,” he states. “The themes of identity crisis, existentialism and freedom of speech were critical to Equus, but I showcase them in an entirely different context in this play.”
Following his stint at the Karachi Mubarak Festival, he aims at taking the play to academic institutes in hopes to encourage the common man to think about the prevailing problems in Pakistan. “I’m not just doing this play because I want to bring the concerns of security and freedom of expression to the establishment’s attention but also because I want to encourage every person, who is part of our society, to think about how we can improve this situation,” he holds.
Featuring a two-member cast, Mesam Naqvi and Shankar himself, the play will be converted into a feature-length production if it garners a positive response from the audiences. Shankar, who is a graduate of and junior faculty member at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa), has worked extensively with the NRT. He hopes to work with other theatre companies and artists as well.
Sunil Shankar
East Is East, which was adapted into a British movie in 1999 featuring Bollywood veteran Om Puri, will be adapted for the stage in Pakistan for the first time. Without divulging details about the project at this stage, he states, “We have bought the rights to the original play by Khan-Din and I’m co-directing the musical with Butt.” Butt has previously adapted Mamma Mia and Chicago and also has to her credit original plays, such as Karachi – The Musical, with her Music Art Dance (Mad) School.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2015.
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