The number of cinemas in Karachi can be counted on finger tips, music has been restricted to cafes but theater is slowly and gradually covering ground. True! theater artists deserve a standing ovation for their untiring efforts to save theater in times of crises however, despite the boom seen in theatre, there seems to be a lack of original ideas.
Yes! the thespians have resurfaced after a long time and I know writing a play is not a piece of cake but side by side one needs to realize that art, in any form and in any part of the world, has not progressed until or unless it was unique and original. Be it any part of the world, the true art comes from one’s soil, one’s own culture, one’s own stereotypes because only then it can be representative of one’s self.
The point is not to ridicule all those who are inspired by the Western theater and those who think that throwing in a lot of money, beautiful women and popular music creates a masterpiece, but to show them a mirror. It is to register that is this lack of original ideas really taking us anywhere or just increasing our tilt towards Hollywood classics.
Doing Western play is not a thing one should call a bad practice but it is not something to be called good either. If you talk about reviving the theater and then you stage plays like Moulin Rouge and Mamma Mia then it means you are doing two things as a result. First of all you are catering to classes and not the masses, and secondly you are not creating something that can be used to represent ‘ourselves’.
May be many believe that art is not meant for representing one’s country or background but if that is the case then the so called landlords of theater need to refrain from the overused phrase of ‘we are contributing to revival of theater in Pakistan’. In fact they should realize that they are instead leading to a ‘stagnation of theater in Karachi’.
Well, there are two kinds of thespians in this city. The lot of thespians which dream Woody Allan and think Broadway are less but more effective. The other is the lot which is still celebration Partition of Pakistan in theater, those, I mean to say, who dream Chekov and think Shakespeare, and that too in Urdu.
The adaptation savvy conservative literati of Karachi, as I call them, are still stuck on the Wagah Border and there state is similar to that of Toba Tek Singh, main character of Saadat Hasan Manto’s short story of the same name. Like Singh, they also want to go back to their home but end up in no man’s land.
There is nothing wrong, however, with translating foreign literature because it adds to our own archive and understanding of the world, but the problem is that we end on the same page where started. There is, usually, nothing unique about it.
The thespians here have done the Indian classic ‘Shakuntala’, a drama which is quiet difficult to achieve. The adaptation of a Greek tragedy in the form of Jang Ab Nahi Hogi, was a laudable effort but these rare examples.
The state of theatre in Karachi, especially the trend of adapting world classics, reminds me of the living legend Ghanshyam Jayangarkar, the pioneer of performing arts in Pakistan, who established the first performing arts academy. Mr Ghanshyam had actually sit with the chief of the then archaeology department in the 70s and excavated the dancing beauty of Mohenjodaro and hence crated the dance of Mohejodaro which is even performed today by Tehrik-e-Niswan.
The question that needs to be asked now is that who will become the next Ghanshyam? People are doing a lot of hard work, especially troupes like Tehrik-e-Niswan and Katha, but a greater responsibility is on those who are funded by the government. It is a great achievement that National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) has produced some fine plays but at the same time it is a concern that none of them were originals. We adapt because, many people in the theater industry said, we do not have academies and the government support but now when we have both of them, still there is no visible output. This should be a wake up call for all those who intend to ‘revive theater in Karachi’.
