The delightful short speech in Urdu by Dr Markus Litz, Director, Goethe Institut, won the audience over by declaring that Urdu is a beautiful language.

On the occasion of the first birth celebration of playwright and actor Mansoor Saeed (father of veteran TV and theatre actress Sania Saeed) who died in May this year, his play Galileo ki Dastaan, a translation by him of German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s The life of Galileo, was launched in a book form at the Arts Council recently.

To mark the occasion, three scenes from the play were enacted by artistes Ehtesham, Saleem Mairaj, Yasir and others, with Sania Saeed playing the role of the narrator and housekeeper. The original play presented in the 1980s during the Gen Zia regime saw Mansoor Saeed and Aslam Azhar in major roles. Mansoor Saeed, a great admirer of Brecht, has translated many works of the playwright through the years.

Mansoor Saeed’s friends Rahat Saeed, Director-General of Radio Pakistan and Murtaza Solangi, Dr Kamran Asghar Ali and Dr Muzaffar Qazalbash who had worked with him, were invited to speak on the occasion. All shed light on the interesting aspects of the actor’s life.

In his video-taped speech Aslam Azhar said that Mansoor Saeed had a great sense of humour and was a great friend of the people. Both of them loved theatre and decided to set up a theatre group called Dastak which would present meaningful plays.

As it was Zia’s period they chose to use metaphoric language due to censorship.

“The plays of Brecht were chosen as his style suited us. We chose students from different educational institutions and were successful in presenting the views of people. The play Galileo ki Dastaan had all the ingredients that we were looking for.”

As the original play’s duration was three hours, only three scenes were presented. The bare stage which contained a telescope and a box to sit on had two to three characters in each scene. The first scene with Ehtesham as Galileo and Saleem Mairaj as his friend Sagredo, was the most interesting one as both are very powerful actors, fitting in well with any role they play.

The story focuses on the time when Renaissance is well on its way, with science and discoveries on the rise. But at the same time it is a period which is deeply entrenched in religion and hence ruled by the clergy. Galileo discovers that it is the Earth which revolves round the Sun and not vice versa, and voices his views loudly. Sagredo who believes Galileo’s theory, tells him to be careful as the clergy would not agree with his views and warns him of another scientist who was burned alive for presenting similar views some 200 years before.

The other two scenes show him being presented in the court and his students fearing for his life. They are extremely upset when he repents and takes back his views, to save his life. Galileo is imprisoned for life and his student, Andrea, who comes to meet him as he is leaving Italy, tells him that he is a coward and science has come to a standstill because of him. He declares “a land which does not have heroes is an ill-fated land,” to which Galileo replies, “ill-fated is that land which needs heroes.” The student goes away happy as Galileo gives him his research papers which he has been writing secretly.

The third segment of the programme had a performance by singer Arieb Azhar, son of Aslam Azhar. He said that the play reminded him of the days when it was first performed on stage in which he had played the role of Andrea. Dedicating the songs to his family he sang verses by Khawaja Ghulam Farid, Sheikh Ayaz’s Mera Koi Des Nahin and Akhtar Qayyum’s Sagar Kinare Se Moti Chuno, dedicating it especially to the late Mansoor Saeed. Arieb’s deep-throated solo performance on the guitar created a truly magical atmosphere.