KARACHI, July 30: The summer term of the National Academy of the Performing Arts (Napa) concluded on Sunday night with a performance of Kanjoos by the academy’s second-year students. Held at the Karachi Arts Council, the Urdu adaptation of Moliere’s classic comedy Miser was directed by veteran theatre director, sculptor and Napa faculty member Anjum Ayaz. In line with the institution’s policy, the performance constituted part of the final term examination and students’ performances were graded by faculty members seated in the audience.
Attended by students, faculty and Friends of Napa (the institution’s support organisation), the play presented a progress report on students’ work and their increasing command over technical aspects of theatre such as movement, voice, expression and interpretation. In this regard, Meesum Naqvi in the role of Mirza Sakhawat Baig deserves special mention: the energy and aplomb with which he performed kept the audience involved and reflected the dedication with which he pursues his field of study.
The set, designed by Mr Ayaz, was well-suited to enhance the play’s mood. Making good use of colour and texture, the director created an effective backdrop against which the miser schemes to keep his ten lakh rupees safe. Small yet significant details, such as beaded jaafris on the windows and a terrace garden, were testament to the decades Mr Ayaz has spent in his field. Similarly, although the lighting grid at the Karachi Arts Council is not as state-of-the-art as one could wish for, the available resources were used both effectively and professionally.
Written over 300 years ago by the noted French playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere, the play takes a single trait – the central character Harpagon’s miserliness – and places it at the centre of the action. The adaptation, Kanjoos, is particularly suited to the local context as Baig hordes his money and plots lucrative but ludicrous liaisons for his children. He competes with his son Farrukh (played by Saquib Sameer) for the hand of the beautiful Maraim (played by Shagufta Mumtaz), and tries to force on his daughter Azra (played by Kiran Khan) an old man whose main virtue is the fact that he asks for no dowry. Sakhawat Baig is a splendidly grotesque character, avarice to the core — always wanting to run out and check on the store of money he’s buried at the bottom of the garden yet afraid of doing so in case thieves see him. The ensuing circus of deceptions and misconceptions constitute, at root, a thoroughly unsentimental view of the relations between parents and children and of the cold-blooded combat that takes place when views are not shared. —HM
KARACHI, July 30: The summer term of the National Academy of the Performing Arts (Napa) concluded on Sunday night with a performance of Kanjoos by the academy’s second-year students. Held at the Karachi Arts Council, the Urdu adaptation of Moliere’s classic comedy Miser was directed by veteran theatre director, sculptor and Napa faculty member Anjum Ayaz. In line with the institution’s policy, the performance constituted part of the final term examination and students’ performances were graded by faculty members seated in the audience.
