LAHORE: The Independent Theatre Company with the Lahore Arts Council (LAC) staged on Wednesday legendary Saadat Hasan Manto’s play ‘Kamra Number 9’ at Alhamra Art Centre, The Mall.

The LAC has dedicated Hall 2 at Alhamra Art Centre for parallel theatre plays. The play ‘Kamra Number 9’ was part of such parallel theatre productions.

The 60-minute three-act play had such a strong production value that it kept glued the audience to their seats till the end. The literary piece was deeply and meaningfully tailored for the play.

The set was realistic: an old telephone set with a dialing round, an old radio, a pandan and a traditional bowl of bronze having flowers gave the set a look of its own. Shakeel Siddique, the man behind the lighting, helped give the production a boost with classic lights.

Fine acting was also a strong point of the play. Zoya Uzair played the role of Shirin and won a thunderous round of applause for her acting. Namwar Ayaz, who played the role of Zaman, and Faizan Naveed, who played the role of Nasir, also did good acting.

Director of the play Azeem Hamid, a student of Beacon House National University, told Dawn the play was their 10th production in two years. Hamid, who attended acting courses in Turkey as well, said that the play would also be staged in India on December 25 at Shantipur Rang Peet Natia Mela.

“We have staged plays not only in Pakistan but in Turkey, Tanzania and India too,” he said.

He said the Independent Theatre Company was a self funded project. “Our focus is on Urdu literature because most of the young generation studying in colleges and universities are not well versed in Urdu literature,” said Hamid.

The play will also be staged at the same venue on (Thursday) today.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2014