KARACHI: The National Academy of Performing Arts’ (Napa) Repertory Theatre will present an Urdu adaptation, Baba Jalinoos, of French playwright Moliere’s comedy Tartuffe from Sept 11 to Sept 20. This was announced at a press conference on Tuesday evening.

Napa Director for Programmes Arshad Mahmood praised Khalid Ahmed, who has translated the script into Urdu. He said it was the second successive season which was beginning with a comedy. He said one of the academy’s graduates, Fawad Khan, had been asked to direct the play. On the content of the play, he said its subject was relevant to Pakistani society.

Fawad echoed Arshad’s views saying that the topic of the drama was applicable to our times, as it told the tale of what’s happening in Pakistan. He also commended Khalid’s translation, suggesting he had done justice to Moliere’s comedy, which was in verse.

Informing the media on the cast of the stage production, he said it had Napa graduates, current students of the academy, as well as artists such as Mehvish Far­ooqui and Asma Mu­ndr­awala, known for their dram­atic readings.

A third-year student, Zakiullah, who is playing the lead character in the play, said the same drama was staged in April as part of their studies; it was executed so well that the idea to do it on a bigger scale was floated. He remarked that the play was very close to his heart.

Actor Farhan Alam said it was a nice experience to work on the project, and lauded director Fawad Khan for making things easier for him.

Senior artist and a teacher at Napa Rahat Kazmi said the academy had often been criticised for doing serious and boring plays; this time round it won’t happen. He said he was certain that the audience would enjoy watching Baba Jalinoos, which had a comedic and satirical flair. Like a couple of other speakers before him, he too said that the story came across as a piece of writing written for contemporary times.

Replying to a question, Rahat said a single institution, the National College of Arts in Lahore, established the tradition of painting in the country. He said he hoped Napa, too, would achieve a similar goal in the future.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2015

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