LAHORE, Jan 27: The Ajoka Theatre is organising a three-day Sufi festival (Feb 4-6) to highlight the influence of Sufism on performing arts.

The festival will also include a seminar on “Sufism and Performing Arts” in which people from all over Pakistan will participate.

Ajoka’s famous play ‘Bullah’ will be staged on Feb 4 and ‘Dara’ on Feb 5. The Lahore Arts Council is collaborating on the event scheduled to be held at the Alhamra Art Center, The Mall. A seminar will be held the next day at the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture.

Noted playwright Shahid Nadeem told Dawn on Sunday that the theatre festival was being organised to not only underscore the importance of Sufism in performing arts but also convey the message of tolerance and peace to the masses.

Asked what was the Indian theatre community’s response to the cancellation of the scheduled performances of Ajoka in connection with the annual theatre festival, Mr Nadeem said Ajoka had to perform in Jaipur and Delhi and the theatre people and general public resented the government’s move. Ajoka, he said, had been performing in India for 20 years.

He said after the cancellation of the performances by Ajoka, Delhi-based theatre group Akshra Theatre arranged the performance of Ajoka in Delhi on Jan 19 – the day it was to perform in NSD theatre festival and the performance got a huge response.

Ajoka presented its new play ‘Kaun hai ye gustakh’ on Manto. He said the Akshra Theatre through social, electronic and print media ran a campaign in support of Ajoka which also performed the same play at the Jawaharlal University on its request the same day and more than 1,000 students applauded the performance.

He said most people in India regretted the cancellation of Ajoka’s performances and many took it as a ban on Manto remembrance. He said the peace lobby in India hit out at the Indian government and fans and critics in both countries had raised concerns over the future of the Panj Pani Festival, a project of Ajoka and other theatre groups from across the border.

The festival was last held in 2008 after which it could not be organised owing to strained relations between the two countries.