LAHORE: The Puppet Theatre, set up at Alhamra in 1984 to entertain children, will be revived after the two-year Covid gap in the first week of August, officials told Dawn.

After remaining closed for two years because of Covid pandemic, the puppetry performances would be revived in a renovated hall with new light arrangements, the officials said.

Before Covid, the puppetry performances were held once a week on Sundays. However, they said, the visitors would complain that the puppet theatre had lost its charm because of repetition of stories and same old puppet characters.

Taking the audiences’ feedback seriously, the Lahore Arts Council (LAC) Executive Director Ms Farhat Jabeen decided to revamp the hall and add some colour to the performances, they said.

They said the LAC was contacting different puppeteers to have a new team that would come up with fresh themes and ideas.

They said since long no new puppet had been designed to meet the requirements of some 18 stories recorded by Shoaib Hashmi and Salman Shahid to stage shows in the past.

At present the theatre has just over a dozen puppets which are also not in a good shape, they regretted.

Known TV actor Samina Ahmad had floated the idea of the Alhamra puppet theatre in 1984 when she was a programme manager at the LAC. It was back in 1972 when she got an opportunity to work with puppets in the popular television show Akar Bakkar, directed by Shoaib Hashmi, meat to educate and entertain children.

Ms Saleema Hashmi, who was teaching at the National College of Arts in those days sent some students who voluntarily crafted the puppets for Alhamra and the theatre became popular soon.

The Alhamra Puppet Theatre was formally launched in 1986 in Alhamra basement. Initially, a new puppet performance would be staged after every two months.

It was decided that in the absence of local content, children’s stories should be adapted from all over the world. Shoaib Hashmi agreed to adapt the famous tale of Hansel and Gretel and it was named ‘Gin Kay Teen Sunehri Baal’.

The popular productions of the Alhamra Puppet Theater include ‘Jadoo Ka Drakhat’, ‘Ali Baba Chalis Chor’, ‘Aa Chiri Kha Chiri’, ‘Chunoo Munoo’, ‘Chalak Khargosh’, ‘Chandi Ki Chabi’, ‘Kuchhwa aur Khargosh’ and ‘Joota Jin’.

Executive Director Ms Jabeen said: “We are upgrading the puppet theatre with the help of different puppeteers and shall introduce new stories and puppets after its reopening”.

Khurram Naveel, an official of Alhamra, who has been assigned the task to revive the puppet theatre said, “We are striving hard to revive the puppet theatre that had been closed because of Covid. In this regard, we are working on different story projects and introduction of new puppets”.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2022