KARACHI: What can a theatre person say when someone asks him or her how to sustain the audience’s interest with just two characters on stage? The best way is to smile and suggest that it can be done. That’s what seasoned actress Sania Saeed did on Tuesday evening at a press conference held to announce that the play ‘Main adakara banun gi’, directed by Shahid Shafaat, would be staged from Aug 8 to Sept 8 at the Arts Council.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Wassam, representing KopyKats Productions that has produced the play, said his group was striving hard to contribute to the revival of theatre in the country and producing plays written by Anwar Maqsood was part of the effort. He profusely thanked Sania Saeed and Shahid Shafaat for agreeing to do ‘Main adakara banun gi’.

Mr Shafaat said the drama was about two diametrically opposed characters. The girl (Sania Saeed) is not a highly educated individual and wants to learn the art of acting. The professor (played by Abdullah Farhatullah) whom she approaches for the purpose is inflexible in his ideas. They don’t share their views on every branch of art, and that’s where the humour in the script comes from. The text also deals with the double standards in our society.

Ms Saeed first apologised for arriving late for the press conference. She then told the media that the drama had been staged a few years back for a short run and was very well received.

Mr Farhatullah said people often harboured the notion that Sania Saeed was a serious person, and no different was their opinion of him. If politicians, who had a serious demeanour, could create comedy, so could the actors, he quipped.

Arts Council secretary Ahmed Shah said he had known Sania Saeed and Shahid Shafaat since the time when the late Mansoor Saeed (Sania’s father) used to be an active member of the theatre fraternity and had always wanted them to do a play at the Arts Council, but for some reason it didn’t happen. He informed the journalists that theatrical productions were an ongoing activity at the council, as actor Sajid Hasan too would soon be seen in a play.

Replying to a question, Mr Shafaat said Jawaid Jamal was the writer of ‘Main adakara baunun gi’. It had taken them a couple of years to pen the script, he added.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd , 2014