LAHORE: Ajoka Theatre, in collaboration with Swedish theatre group Jalada, live-streamed a play inspired by the life of Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai titled ‘Malalai, The Girl Who Defeated the Dark Shadows’ from Sweden.

The play was premiered in Malmo, Sweden, in March and was due to tour Pakistan soon afterwards, but the tour could not take place because of the coronavirus pandemic. So it was decided to livestream it from Sweden.

The play was performed on Friday, November 6, and watched by theatre activists, including Ajoka Institute’s acting class students. Special live-streamed shows were organised for students on the City School campuses in Lahore on November 3.

The play was written by Rayam Aljazairi under the mentorship of Ajoka’s Shahid Nadeem. Mr Nadeem, along with Naseem Abbas and Aisha Khan had visited Sweden in February 2020 to work on the script, the music and rehearsals of the play.

The story of the play revolves around two girls whose characters are inspired by Malala of Swat who defied the Taliban and Malala of Mewand who fought against the British colonial forces, popularly known as Malalai.

In the play, a Swedish girl, Olivia, is afraid of going to school due to the bullying by some students but cannot share her fear with anyone. After learning about the inspiring story of the two Malalas told by a Pakistani-Swedish girl, Olivia gathers strength to face and beat her own dark shadows.

The play was directed by Swedish director Agnes Kofoed and the actors included Batool, Abdul Jabbar and Ebba Dahlberg.

After the screening, Shahid Nadeem talked about the process of collaboration between Jalada and Ajoka, besides highlighting the issue of bullying which girl students from both countries faced and which had been the focus of Malala’s campaign for education for girls.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2020