Drama in your living room

Sunil Shankar gears up for ‘The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?’

KARACHI: The Music Art Dance (Mad) school has yet another offering on its theatre palette, with Sunil Shankar’s adaptation of Edward Albee’s play The Goat, or who is Sylvia? Slated to be shown between October 16 and 18, the play features unique and offbeat production techniques, which the thespian and stage director has been known to incorporate into his performances.

Keen on continuing the trend of introducing new forms of theatre to Pakistan, Shankar highlighted his vision of pioneering living-room theatre in the country with The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? “We hope to kick-start the trend of ‘living-room theatre’ with our latest play. We aim at borrowing small spaces from people and organising performances there,” he told The Express Tribune.

This isn’t the first play directed by the National Academy of Performing Arts graduate, who has previously participated in similar performances held at T2F. Speaking about the play’s dynamics, the actor-director noted the storyline may be perceived as controversial because it explores themes that aren’t often heard today – infidelity and bestiality.



Building upon the story of a middle-aged married man, whose family life starts disintegrating once he falls in love with a goat, the play casts Shankar, Joshinder Chaggar and Adnan Saeed in lead roles. “For now, the play is going to be performed at Mad School, but I hope to take it to other locations as well,” he added.

Shankar previously co-directed the stage adaptation of cultural-comedy film East Is East with Nida Butt. The duo was the first to bring the play East Is East to the stage in Pakistan, which was adapted into a British movie in 1999, featuring Bollywood veteran Om Puri. Other notable works by Shankar include plays, such as Metaphysical Karachi, Court Martial and Equus and he has also starred in theatre productions, such as Stumped.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2015.

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