Let me confess that at the back of the mind are numerous (countless?) restless themes, frustrating questions and conflicting fundamentals with regard to this country which celebrates its 61st Independence Day next week, and yet there is this desire to write about the staging of the celebrated musical Chicago in Karachi at the Arts Council auditorium. It was such a polished production, and it was another full house when I saw it on Monday night. That standing ovation should have been one hundred percent, and the miserly and the stingy in the audience did not do their bit.
As I write there is the crucial meeting between the coalition partners Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif - and presumably by the time these lines appear on Wednesday morning there could be a clearer picture on so many critical issues. On whether the coalition is to survive? And what are the details of the arrangement if it does, and what are the consequences, known and unknown, if and when it doesn't? To say that there is a pessimism on this count is to state the obvious.
With reference to Karachi where I reside there are this evening many disturbing issues that are gaining in hype and focus, and the one I seek to underline in red is that of Talibanisation. This evening the media is reporting that the Tehrike Taliban e Pakistan (TTP) and the Mutteheda Quami Movement (MQM) have both spoken very explicitly on this theme.
The TTP has said that it has its eyes on Sindh, including Karachi, and the MQM has among other points stressed that the Sindh Government should take notice of what the Taliban leaders have been saying lately. There is more available on this issue - which the electronic media and newspapers will carry, and I would imagine that it would have Karachiites of all opinions worried on yet another count.
Now the musical Chicago, whose beneficiary was the Medical Aid Foundation non profit organisation set up in 1982 which aims to provide modern, efficient and free care to needy and poor cancer patients. It brings out the fact that such humanistic activity does take place in the city, and the purpose of the fund raising is to promote and sustain community welfare work.
This foundation has also set up Rabat Kada in 1991, in this city, which is said to be the country's first free hospice for terminally ill cancer patients. Rabat Kada accommodates 25 patients at a given time, and hopes to cater to 100 patients when its existing facilities are expanded. Construction work is to begin this month.
Sponsored by the Bank Alfalah, Chicago was produced by Made for Stage Productions ((MFS) which is described as an "innovative theatre company" in the brochure that was distributed at the performance that night. It is said that "Chicago" will be presented nation-wide in the next six months.
Chicago has probably created theatre history in the country by "reproducing the 1920s jazz ensemble" (credits to its excellent six member band which reproduced the entire musical soundtrack live) But what I would like to emphasise is what Nida Butt, a human rights lawyer by career, has said in her capacity as the musical's producer, director and choreographer. She also plays one of the two leading ladies, (Velma Kelly) - the other one being Sanam Saeed, (who played Roxy Hart).
Nida Butt thanked the sponsors of the play, and the audience, making a specific mention of its successful presentation in this city. In the brochure, I have mentioned Nida Butt has written about herself, which hasn't received the attention that it deserves. I would like to quote extracts from it.
Nida Butt writes "I don't know theatre. Didn't study dream or indulge in it anyway till I got a taste a few years ago. After my first production 'The Producers' (2006) I decided to push my limits and this time aimed at reproducing the entire musical soundtrack live with a six-member band...I hadn't planned on playing Velma Kelly. It kind of happened my default...Yet secretly I was kind of thrilled with the opportunity. Gruelling months followed but it was worth All That Jazzy...All That Jazz. quite literally."
She writes further to say that "As a dancer and choreographer, the dancing aspect of Chicago was heaven. But to find strong sexy women, talented enough to brave the stage was hellish. Besides Chicago's reputation was preceding itself; raising eyebrows before it even stage. Saucy, spectacular, sizzling and sexy...how would Karachi take to it?
"That's the funny thing about theatre. You love it when we make you laugh; adore us when we make you cry but what if we offend you? But hell".
Nida Butt goes to say this "This is a story about murder, greed, corruption, treachery, violence, exploitation and adultery...Sounds so familiar...It could be Karachi. Enjoy the show".
What is significant is what Nida Butt wonders - of how Karachi would take to it. And then she also offers the possibility that all that we see in Chicago could be Karachi too.
Of course during the musical mobile phones were switched off or put on the silent mode, but, I noticed, oddly, that there were people who had their phones silent, and their messaging was on! For someone who has been in fairly regular when it comes to seeing theatre in Karachi for almost four decades, to see a full house (even if the guests were almost all invited) was a reflection of the interest there is in live performances despite TV and the intensity of the political polarisation.
I would like to end with a quote from Arthur Strindberg who says that "I see the playwright as a lay preacher peddling the ideas of his time in popular form". (nusratnasarullah0@hotmail.com)
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