Ambassador Cameron Munter kicked off the opening night of the collaborative American and Pakistani production of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple at the Pakistan National Council for Arts (PNCA). Performances are open to the public through July 17, says a press release received here on Tuesday.
"In some ways, the relationship between the USA and Pakistan does bear resemblance to the relationship between Oscar and Felix, the play's two protagonists. We sometimes see the world in different ways," Ambassador Munter said. "But as Oscar and Felix discover, and as I believe, it is true for our bilateral relationship, that even while we at times pass through rough patches, we can find a way to live together, to support each other, and to prosper."
In The Odd Couple, two very good friends with very different personalities, Oscar and Felix, decide to share a New York apartment. This situation makes for an enduring and endearing comedy, and a classic work of the American stage. The play was also made into a Hollywood film and long-running US TV series.
The play is directed by renowned stage director and US Cultural Envoy Allen Nause, who is in Pakistan at the invitation of the US Embassy. In addition to directing this play, he has conducted a series of workshops for young artistes in Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore over the past two months. In the United States, Nause is Artistic Director of the Artistes Repertory Theatre in Portland, Oregon. In Islamabad, he has partnered with the arts and entertainment company "Lush" and the PNCA to stage the play.
Cultural Envoys are American performing and visual artistes, arts managers and educators who travel abroad for short-term residencies to conduct workshops and master classes, present seminars, and deliver lectures. The US Embassy brought Nause to Pakistan to initiate a sustained series of Embassy-sponsored cultural programmes that manifest America's long-term commitment to engagement and creative collaboration between Pakistanis and Americans.-PR
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