By Zain Khan Afridi
Islamabad — NUST Business School (NBS) kicked off the Youth Drama Festival 2015 on Monday with a poignant play that captured the plight of an average Pakistani citizen suffering at the hands of a merciless and inefficient bureaucracy.
The festival, which features teams from different universities, is being held at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) and will continue till Sunday with one play staged every day at 7pm.
Based on a short story of the same name by legendary writer Krishan Chandar, the NBS play “Jamun Ka Pair” begins with a poet who is stuck under a plum tree, uprooted by the wind, in the lawn of a government building.
A passerby sees the trapped poet and alerts a peon to help free the poet. But the peon is only willing to take the issue seriously if offered a bribe.
More shades of a corrupt and uncooperative bureaucracy are displayed when a clerk and a head clerk explain to the helpful passerby that the tree cannot be removed immediately due to complicated government processes.
The issue of the tree’s removal keeps getting transferred from one government office to another, providing a sharp commentary of poor governance in Pakistan.
It is revealed that the tree was planted by the Nigerian ambassador and cannot be removed because it is a symbol of Pak-Nigerian friendship. Pakistani officials even suggest the man’s death could turn him into a hero who saved the friendly relations between the two nations.
But when the Nigerian government hears about the case, it immediately agrees to remove the tree. By that time, however, it is too late to save the poet.
The plot of the play, its execution and the acting were all spot on. The actors had some nervous moments on stage, but they pulled off a terrific performance of the satire overall.
They managed to accurately portray the unhelpful behaviour most associated with Pakistani government officials and bureaucrats.
The set was kept simple but the direction by the NBS team more than made up for the lack of glamour.
Despite a rainy day in the federal capital, the play saw a good turnout. The audience consisted of both young and old.
Akram Rasool, a retired PTCL officer from Islamabad, said the play was “excellent.”
“I have lived the life of a government officer and can relate to how the slow and sluggish style of operation can get the better of anyone,” Rasool said.
“Team NBS has surely set the bar high and we hope to do better than this when our time comes,” said Ahmed Qureshi, a student of Bahria University and part of the university’s entry at the festival.
PAKISTAN INK 