KARACHI, Feb 17: While some quarters are trying to revive serious theatre in the city, commercial theatre generally regarded as stand up comedy, which was at a peak a decade ago is facing decline.

There was a time when those who were part or practiced this form of art in Karachi owned auditoriums and venues to stage dramas. Artistes and producers would stage plays and attracting immense audiences, particularly from the lower middle class areas.

“At that time no day would go without a stage drama in the city but now such shows are staged during the Eid holidays or completely vanished,” says Khadim Hussain Uchvi, who has a number of stage dramas to his credit as a director and writer. Karachi, he adds, had the distinction of setting a trend and pioneering comedy stage shows, which were the envy of artistes in Lahore and elsewhere. “We had a glorious past of staging shows but now we have nothing to cheer about,” he said sadly.

At present, Lahore has twelve venues, Alhamra Halls in particular, where commercial drama is staged everyday. Unlike Alhamra Halls, which is patronised by the Punjab government, no venue in Karachi is under state patronage.

“It was then Governor Punjab Lieutenant General Ghulam Jilani Khan who established the Alhamra Cultural Complex in Lahore in mid-1980s when culture was a taboo commodity in the country during General Ziaul Haq’s military regime. Unfortunately, Sindh got no such ruler,” said a senior artiste.

The commercial stage show was the rage in the city in the late 1970s and it gained recognition abroad as well when videocassettes became popular. Umer Sharif, who acted in Pakistani movies and still stages plays particularly during Eid festivals made video cassettes of stage shows a common feature. It was Mr Sharif’s shifting to Lahore, when he was more pre-occupied with movies, and construction of commercial plazas in place of auditoriums and halls, which dealt a huge blow to the culture of commercial drama.

“We staged dramas in halls and thetres when they was no market but when we attracted people the owners of thetres sold them to the builders,” complained a stage artiste.

He said it embarrassed Karachi artistes and art enthusiasts who were accompanying visiting Indian art film icon,Naseeruddin Shah when the latter expressed a desire to watch a play at the arts council or elsewhere and he was told that no such activitywas available anywhere in the city.

“Mr Shah said he would watch a play a day or two days laterbut he was informed that Karachi had no play scheduled for weeks, which shocked him and embarrassed all of us,” he said.

Mr Umer Sharif, now an advisor on culture to the Sindh chief minister when approached by this scribe told him to contact the Karachi arts council instead.

Mr Uchvi who wants thetre to return to Karachi has a grievance against the arts council that it charges heavy rent for its open-air auditorium. This he said is beyond the reach of many organisers. He said he wants to revive the culture of commercial drama and will organize a series of them in March.