LAHORE: The four-day Brecht Theatre Festival, organised by Ajoka Theatre, kicked off at the Alhamra Arts Council amid laughter and widespread applause.
The Ajoka Theatre paid tribute to Bertolt Brecht, a late German theatre icon by organising the Brecht Festival in collaboration with the Heinrich Boll Stiftung Pakistan. One of the earliest plays performed by Ajoka in 1985 was an adaptation of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The good person Sezuan, The three-penny Opera and the Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. All the plays were relevant to the country and have been amongst Ajoka’s most popular productions.
The first play titled ‘Takay Da Tamasha’ is an adaptation of The Three Penny Opera and was very warmly received by the audience. It had first been performed in 1991 at the Goethe Institute Lahore and the music used in the play was originally given by the late Prof Israr Ahmad.
The play revolved around a character, Phooka, who is involved in robberies, pick pocketing, snatchings and murder. His friendship with a deputy superintendent made the play interesting for the viewers. “This is a funny play, but its content is so true as the authorities today favour criminals in our society,” said Saima, a student. The theatre is such a vibrant medium for the depiction of our everyday lives and very entertaining at the same time, she added.
The story had a ‘principle’ of a beggar academy that trained people to beg at different points in the city and their penetrating the streets showed the existence of the beggary mafia.
A principle’s daughter falls in love with Phooka and gets married without the consent of her parents. However, her parents know that Phooka has been married before and is known for cheating on his spouses. The play took the audience to the red-light area of the city, to the academy of beggars and the police station, which are the most realistic and controversial places in our society. It showed us how criminals collaborate with law enforcers and make a mockery of the justice system. During a few scenes, the audience burst out laughing on the script and performance of the young actors. They said that such plays highlighted the poor infrastructure of society and its fragile condition. The cast included Malik Aslam, Tahira Imam, Usman Zia, Razia Malik, Imran ul Haq, Shehzad Sadiq, Sarfraz Ansari, Nadeem Abbas, Asif Japani, Yaqoob Masih, Shahid Zafar, Vicky, Sohail Tariq, Meena Sadiq, Khola Qurraishi, Waseem, Kamran and Aliya.
Source: Daily Times
Date:5/27/2010
