KARACHI: It is always exciting to see young theatre practitioners coming up and putting their talent on display, especially with the kind of choices they make for producing plays. That is exactly why one couldn’t resist an invitation to a production called Coffee Bar directed by Usama Khan, a graduate of the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa), which ran for two days (Friday and Saturday) at the academy.

Translated from English into Urdu by Khan himself, the director introduced the one-act piece to the audience as an ‘Arabic play’. Well, one’s research suggests it’s an Egyptian play — so the Arabic bit is right — originally called The Buffet authored by renowned playwright Ali Salem in the late 1960s. Now keep this era in mind and the viewer will get a fair idea about the kind of theatre that was practised in those days when ‘man’ against ‘system’ was often dealt with as the most important subject.

Coffee Bar, as can be easily guessed, is set in a section of a bar where a man wearing a suit (Husnain Falak) is sitting in a posture that gives away his position of authority — he produces dramas on stage. In comes a young playwright (Ashmal Lalwany), who believes in his creativity, and sits across the table to inquire about whether the play he’s presented to the producer has got the nod of approval. There’s also a butler/waiter (Naveed Ul Hassan) who, whenever the buzzer is pressed by the producer, walks in to take orders — symbolising the bureaucratic grip on the situation.

The producer-writer conversation begins. Initially, the young creative man gets the feeling from the person on the other side of the table that what he’s penned will pass muster, and even the name of Chekov is dropped to highlight the specialty of the content. But as soon as the producer asks the writer to replace a word from the script with another socially acceptable one, things start to get sour between the two, and the former exerts his authority and command — with the help of the waiter — to pin the latter down. Then another twist takes place. Let’s not go there because Coffee Bar may well be staged again.

Given that the young people were involved in the 55-minute or so theatrical presentation, one must praise, and therefore encourage, them for at least two reasons: the choice of the text and its proportionately satirical, worthy translation which is not easy to achieve because of the Pinteresque vibe that it’s suffused with. This in turn means that Khan looks for meaningful texts — he wants to express, not impress.

As for the actors, they did a decent job on Friday. They need to work a little, not an awful lot — just a little — on voice projection, though.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2022