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Dad’s day out
It was a stage show with a difference. An all-amateur production, Dad! celebrated Father’s Day, and focused on the trials and tribulations of parenting. With a cast of 16, the production was put together by a courier company with real-life fathers cast in the role of ‘brats for a day.’ Real-life kids (read young adults) played ‘dad for a day.’ Shireen Naqvi, the interlocutor, kept the two ‘warring factions’ at bay!
From way beyond the last mountain came Javed Jabbar, cast as society elder and chief guest, eloquent as ever, doing full justice to the best scripted lines in the play. Ramiz Allawala played three roles — that of the tiger, the tiger’s cub, and the puppy dog — using the combination to demonstrate conflict resolution in the family.
The play was a tribute to dads rearing families in the rough and tumble of the modern day world. Considering the centrality of mangoes to society these days, and perhaps the need to tango after a mango meal, sentiments were in express mode as tears occasionally welled up in the eye, generated by both on-stage humour and the pathos of real life.
The role of moms was acknowledged in full, with the term ‘greater half’ coined to substitute ‘better half.’ The script reflected fully the wisdom of Etsko Schuitema, Bob Urichuck, Edward de Bono and Stephen Covey, with empathy and the need to understand before being understood, a central message, along with the realization that all parents learn parenting on the job, and are deserving of their kids’ forgiveness for poor performance in the early days of parenthood.
All in all it was 90 minutes of light-hearted thoughtfulness, hosted by TCS, and the amateur cast got through its ordeal quite well!
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