KARACHI: An online play titled No Time to Sleep seeks to portray the 24 hours of a death row prisoner before his execution.

The role of Prisoner Z will be played by Sarmad Khoosat and the play will go on without any breaks on social media.

Set inside a replica of an actual death cell, the play follows Prisoner Z’s journey starting at 12pm on Sept 26 — when his mercy petition would have been rejected. A social media prologue will depict rolling coverage of the issuance of execution warrant and the wheels that are set in motion to carry out his execution. Petitions are filed in court, the media is alerted, and his family is notified that scrambles to make the harrowing trip to see him for the last time.

When the live stream begins, Z will be sitting in his cell in solitary confinement, occasionally being silent, occasionally conversing with the guard who is watching him. But mostly, he will wait. This piece is primarily about the tyranny of time that is both long and short — running slow and running out — while the ropes are tested. No Time to Sleep will begin streaming live exactly at 12am, Oct 10, 2018.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018