KARACHI: This year’s International Performing Arts Festival organised by the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) will take place from March 5 to March 22. This was announced by the artistic director of the academy’s Repertory Theatre Zain Ahmed at a press conference on Thursday evening.

Mr Ahmed said Napa started doing festivals in 2012 and the international event was incepted in 2014. The 2020 edition will, like its predecessors, have music shows, dance performances and plays by local and international artists.

He said it will all begin on March 5 with a musical performance Building Bridges through Music featuring Nafees Ahmed, collaborating with UK musicians Ustad Shahbaz Husain and Zayn Mohammad. The plays will kick off the next day with an Urdu translation (Beech Bahar Ki Raat Ka Sapna) of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. On March 7, the nATANDA Dance Theatre from Sri Lanka will put up their show called Touch.

As far as local theatre practitioners go, the festival will have, among others, two Sindhi plays, Moomal Rano directed by Shahnawaz Bhatti (March 9) and Shetan Ji Isteefa by Ali Roshan Sheikh (March 12). Apart from that, Tehrik-e-Niswan will present Aik Hazar Aur Aik Theen Raatein (March 18).

On March 13, Mr Ahmed said, a German group will present Winterreise, having ‘ballet and opera’ attributes, and on March 14, Italy’s Marco Luly will stage A Comedy of Errors. On March 19, another Sri Lankan group will showcase Dear Children, Sincerely: Remembrance Day.

Mr Ahmed said this year Taiwan is taking part in the festival for the first time. Directed by Pao-Chang Tsai, their drama is titled Solo Date (March 20). Also, Germany’s director Corrine Jabar has prepared a play called Partition Stories (March 21).

Talking to the media Ms Jabar said the play is based on a book by Anam Zakaria. It’s basically an account of oral history that Zakaria has collected.

Actor Nimra Bucha said Jabar’s play is a modern way of looking at partition.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2020