Staying afloat with a different medium

Sunil Shankar says ‘The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?’ adaptation caters to select few

KARACHI: “Imagine what you can’t imagine,” said Sunil Shankar, quoting a dialogue from The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? when asked about the driving force behind his latest theatrical offering. After sharing his hopes to introduce living room theatre to local audiences, Shankar recently unveiled the play at Music Art Dance (MAD) School on October 16, which will go on till October 18.

Hopeful that the play will rivet audiences over its three-day run, Shankar said, “I’m confident that more people will come and watch the play.” Of the Tony award-winning play by Edward Albee, which focuses on controversial issues such as bestiality, Shankar said it features a breadth of other themes. “The play centralises the theme of bestiality but isn’t solely directed towards it. It focuses on love and loss and the boundaries of relationships,” he said while addressing a small audience at MAD School.

The play features a cast of four with Shankar also playing the lead role of Martin, a 50-year-old patriarch. He enjoys a healthy relationship with his wife Stevie, played by Joshinder Chaggar, and over the course of the play, the couple remains concerned about their son Billy’s homosexuality. Kashif Hussain plays Martin and Stevie’s son and Adnan Saeed essays the role of Martin’s accomplice.

Read: Drama in your living room



The story reaches its climax when the family’s world comes crashing down following Martin’s confession that he has fallen in love with a goat, inevitably leading to a heated confrontation between him and his wife.

Shankar is looking towards taking his latest production to different places in the near future. “In comparison with the plays staged at the National Academy of Performing Arts, this type of play caters to another kind of audience. This is an entirely different medium and style,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2015.

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