KARACHI: Seasoned actress Sania Saeed went down memory lane to tell media persons about her journey in the field of theatre at an event held at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Thursday evening.
She said her theatre journey began at the KPC when she was 10-years-old. She had vague memory of it. What she remembered was that Karl Marx’s centenary celebrations were taking place. She was in a bazaar scene in the drama. She could see that outside of the KPC, there were a good number of police mobiles. There were more people outside, than inside the KPC premises.
Ms Saeed said she had experienced the last wave of the left movement (jati jati movement) in the country. “It makes me think we were good people. We had good, learned people with us.”
She said she, and youngsters with her, were trained where to go and what to do in case the police arrested members of their theatre group. “Perhaps, a common child wouldn’t understand that. But for us, it was a bit alienating because when we went to school, as we were growing up, the kind of children we got to interact with at school gave us a sense of alienation. There were girls not like me, children not like me… It was an unusual childhood. I want to say here when our children grow up in such an atmosphere, it’s not all hunky-dory. There are conflicts which are not the conflicts of normal children.” She, however, pointed out that what she was doing gave her a sense of usefulness.
Recalls her ‘unusual’ childhood, says she still faces dearth of finances for her theatre group
Ms Saeed then talked about her theatre group ‘Dastak’. She said the seniors in the group would listen carefully to the suggestions coming from their younger colleagues.
She said alongside all of that, the [left] movement was carrying on. Their friends were being picked or tortured. It was a different kind of understanding of life. “During that time, my maternal uncle was murdered in India. He was a theatre activist. It was my first firsthand encounter with death. This was all the impressions of a child. I hadn’t read Das Kapital or any such thing. I was learning through emotions which became valuable to me. I also tried to understand those who left the movement when the movement got disintegrated. It was disappointing. I used to see my father (Mansoor Saeed) being disappointed and its through him that I would feel that. Because it was his life. Those were his people, his family. But the way he handled all of it was commendable. It makes me think I was raised by a good man. Our attitude towards all of that remained humane. We were never bitter. Perhaps there was sadness, but not bitterness.”
Ms Saeed again recalled the Dastak days, saying remarkable individuals such as Aslam Azhar and Ahmed Saleem were part of it. “The faith we developed in the intelligence of our people by doing plays, it helped us not turn despondent. When we did the play Galileo for the Progressive Writers Movement, it felt as if we were at a mushaira. People would say ‘mukarrar’ (encore) and say wah wah. We were on stage and thinking ‘how are we going to do it in a mukarrar way’. We also did Galileo for trade unions. The audience liked it. I still have the same belief. Those were to me as a young performer magical moments.”
In the same vein, she mentioned the plays she did for children, including for the blind and deaf kids. She said her group thought that they should also put up dramas for those who did not belong to the leftist or rightist groups or were somewhere in the middle. She spoke about the problem of the shortage of money that her group often had to face.
The renowned actress said that while in Lahore, she came up with Olomopolo, a cultural and social production hub, and did plays under its banner. But to date, the money issue comes in the way of producing plays and, she mentioned, she’s in debt.
After her address to the media, the floor was opened for a question-answer session.
The event was organised by the KPC’s literary committee.
Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2026