KARACHI: KopyKats Productions will present its new stage play Hua Kucch Yun on Nov 22. This was announced at a press conference at the Arts Council on Tuesday.

Talking to Dawn the director of the play Dawar Mahmood said, “It’s the first love story that I’m directing. It’s written by Sajid Hasan. Anwar Maqsood [with whom he collaborated on previous occasions] has read it, liked it and endorsed it. It’s going to begin on November 22 in Peshawar, after which it will travel to Multan, Faisalabad, and Gujranwala. In Islamabad it will run for three weeks in January, then Lahore, and then will finally be staged in Karachi. “There are 35 actors, 11 set changes and all of this [story] will be wrapped in 90 minutes.”

Mahmood said it is an original script [no adaptation]. “It’s my first experience working with Sajid Hasan. It was a very difficult (mushkil) experience. It took us two years to draft the script, because we had to change a lot, and once the changes were carried out, we were able to make it presentable.”

President Arts Council Ahmed Shah said there was a time when people harboured the notion that the city of Karachi wasn’t keen on theatre — there were no theatre halls here. Plays written by writers such as Kamal Ahmed Rizvi and Bano Qudsia were put up at the Arts Council, but not many people turned up to see them. Anwar Maqsood played a significant part in popularising theatre. Then Anwar sahib took a break last year, saying it was not important that only he keep writing plays, so now Sajid Hasan had penned a drama. He added he was sure that Hua Kucch Yun would be a successful venture.

Sajid Hasan said it’s a symbolic love story that spanned 60 years. It’s a work of fiction, a massive undertaking in terms of production. And it took him more than a year to write it.

Anwar Maqsood also extended his good wishes to the makers of the play.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2017