KARACHI: Let’s go through some established definitions first. The primary purpose of a comedy — a production meant for stage — is to amuse. Then there are types of comedies. Farce is one of them. It involves horseplay. There’s also satire in which society’s shortcomings are highlighted. In our part of the world, oftentimes, all of them are rolled into one. There’s nothing wrong with it as long as the technical requirements of a theatre play are adhered to and the end product manages to amuse the audience.

A comedy play titled Monkey Business, written and directed by Yasir Hussain, had its opening on Friday at the Arts Council for friends and family. It’s formally premiered on Saturday and run until April 20.

At the heart of the story is a man named Wasim (Yasir Hussain), an actor who does not seem to be doing well. His wife, Sana (Yusra Irfan), is a painter with an aggressive attitude. They have a tenant Sherry (Umer Alam), an aspiring actor. It is clear at the outset that the audience is going to listen to a big number of lines which are to do with performing arts.

The story takes a turn when Wasim receives a call from a man (Bilal Yousufzai) representing the Arts Council asking him about the funds that he’s been getting on grounds of physical ailment. He wants to come to Wasim’s place to investigate and check whether the funds are being utilised in a just manner. This gets the actor nervous. He pretends that his legs aren’t healthy and uses crutches to stand up.

Written and directed by Yasir Hussain, Monkey Business will run till 20th at Arts Council

In the meantime, he’s also been receiving the news through the media that some unhinged individuals have escaped an asylum. When the inspector comes to visit him, the pretention causes confusion, forcing Wasim and Sherry to assume different grabs, including those of women, dancing to popular songs.

Monkey Business relies (and given the appreciative way the audience enjoyed it on Friday) on lines with a lot — a lot — of showbiz references. In the beginning, it even pokes fun at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa), calling it Lapa, by mentioning its actors’ emphasis on correct Urdu pronunciation.

Then there’s a sequence in the beginning of the play which reminds one of stage artist Saleem Afridi’s performance with the late Umar Shareef in one of their plays together. In that hilarious drama Afridi narrates Sharif the story of a film in which a dumb boy (who sings) falls for a deaf girl (who hears him sing), and the girl has a blind uncle who ‘sees’ the girl and the boy talk.

In fact, Monkey Business in its technical approach and reliance on dance sequences comes across as a tribute to Karachi’s commercial theatre of the 1980s and 1990s. If that’s the case, its makers should be applauded.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2025