The evening was a lesson in history. The chapter under discussion was the Forbidden City that holds immense fascination for the believers of the three Abrahamic faiths — Jews, Christians and Muslims.
The history of Jerusalem was interestingly depicted in Jerusalem — A Journey Back in Time through striking images and narration, along with enactment of scenes and events through dance and choreography. The event was a fundraiser for Janum (a network to help improve maternal and neonatal health in Pakistan, and comprises Rotary clubs and is anchored in Murshid Hospital and Health Care Centre (MHHCC), Karachi) in collaboration with Tehrik-i-Niswan.
The presentation was the combined effort of Dr Iftikhar Salahuddin who was responsible for the script, narration and photographs; concept and direction by Anwer Jafri, choreography by Sheema Kermani, set design by BBCL, and Ayesha, Mumtaz, Taimur, Yasser, Abid, Imran, Huma Naz, Mohsin Khan, Zeenat Bayat, Paras Mansoor, Anwer Jafri and Sheema Kermani as the performers.
The depiction of the different facets and history of the city through multimedia was interesting and vibrant. The performance started off with a string of images of Jerusalem showing the importance the city has held to the present-day situation where one sees blood and hears the cries of the oppressed.
Besides images and narration, dance and movement carried the story forward. In totality the enactments gelled well with the story. From the arrival of Moses and the Ark of the Covenant, to the period when King Solomon married Queen Sheba or the arrival of the Sufi saints with Rabia Basri specifically mentioned, all was aptly produced through dance and music.
In particular, the whirling dervishes in the Sufi segment and the belly dancing in King Solomon’s era grabbed the attention of the audience. The scene where a dialogue between Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi (Paras Mansoor) and Moosa Bin Mamoon (Anwer Jafri) in which the Sultan put forth the question as to which faith is just was an engaging scene though a tad bit long. A must mention are the props and costumes which were worked upon in detail and carried the right effect.
After the performance, Images on Sunday caught up with Sheema Kermani for a post-performance chat.Q. How did Jerusalem – A Journey Back in Time happen and what went into the making of this production?
SK. When we first heard that Jerusalem – A Journey Back in Time was a mere slide show we were perplexed as what can we do with it. But after thinking it over we incorporated dance, music, ritual, poetry and whatever we found that we could illustrate. It was a lovely experience with great team work of actors, dancers, and of course, Dr Iftikhar.
The most interesting aspect was the costumes and props for which thorough research was conducted. We looked at pictures and miniature paintings to devise the props and costumes — from the proper headgear for Salahuddin Ayubi to depicting the story of Queen of Sheba, King Solomon and the Hoopoe bird.
The research became an interesting learning experience as along the way we were discovering stories in history that otherwise one misses out. Palestine is very close to our hearts and personally I am a political person who feels very strongly for the freedom of Palestine, and so I had to bring this forth.
Q. Tehrik-i-Niswan’s philosophy is to raise awareness about women’s issues but this presentation isn’t in this context.SK. It is a misconception. I guess people take the name Tehrik-i-Niswan too literally. We have done plays on blasphemy laws, political issues and other topics. Basically, we do work on socially relevant issues. As for this particular play, one sees nobody really knows the history of Jerusalem and as I said during the presentation the story reflects the history of the world today with the wars and religious conflicts that are going on everywhere. In turn this story carries our message as well because what Tehrik is looking for is to do work that will create awareness towards peace.
Q. Taking into view this recent performance that spells freshness and originality, the Tehrik has been accused of staging their old plays too often. Why the dearth of new plays?
SK. Tehrik has been working for 30 years but for the last few years there is another generation that has grown up who haven’t seen our old plays, so we want to bring our work to this newer audience. Even the idea behind the two Tilsm festivals was to bring back the plays performed a decade or more years ago; plays that a whole generation had not seen. Some of these plays have been important in the history of theatre landmarks in their own right and they need to been seen. Along with staging old plays we are doing new work, like this production was new, very experimental and innovative. This year we held a tribute to Ghanshyam comprising many dance performances along with a totally new production, Peace Dreams. The production was a modern dance ballet with an undercurrent search for peace that we depicted through mixed media such as dance, music, lights and visuals.
Q. Future projects?
SK. In the last week of December we are holding a conference which will be the first of its kind in Pakistan, where the participants will present papers and have discussions on the performing arts, be it theatre, music, dance, films, etc. We have people coming from India, Bangladesh, America, and this conference is a part of Tehrik-i-Niswan’s celebrations.
The idea is to create some documentation about the performing arts because when one goes looking for information there is hardly anything available. We want to document and register history, and also at the same time celebrate those women who have been in the field of the performing arts but are almost unknown or are no longer with us. The idea is to publish a book of all the proceedings of the conference which the Oxford University Press has agreed to publish.
Besides the collaboration of the OUP, Goethe Institut is helping out by bringing an expert from Germany; then people from other cities of Pakistan are showing interest in the conference. Hence we are aiming it to be as interesting an event as possible.