KARACHI: The National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) will do a rerun of the play Sau din chor ke directed by Uzma Sabin and written by Babar Jamal from Nov 20 to 30. This was announced by artistic director of the Napa Repertory Theatre Zain Ahmed at a press conference on Friday.

Mr Ahmed said the play, based on Michael Cooney’s Cash on delivery, was successful in its first showing, so much so that people demanded that it be staged once more. He argued it would also serve as an ‘experiment’ that what result it would glean if repeated in such a short time span. There would be a total of eight shows from Thursday to Sunday, and in the morning the academy had planned to put up performances for schoolchildren because it’s a light-hearted story. Mr Ahmed also pointed out that new chairs had been installed in the academy’s in-house auditorium.

Uzma Sabin said her team was encouraged by the success of the first run. One of the characters, however, had been changed. Since the set didn’t have to be dismantled, the actors were able to rehearse on set.

Actor Hammad Sartaj talked about the experience of knowing when and where to elicit laughter. Farhan Alam mentioned that now as actors they knew which parts to improve to get a favourable response from the audience, while Shumaila Taj termed working with the team as an ‘extraordinary experience’.

Replying to a question, Mr Ahmed said there was a casting issue because of which the play Aik diary jo kho gaee, directed by Rahat Kazmi, had been put off to January.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2014