LAHORE: The three-day Azadi Theatre Festival will kick off today (Tuesday) at the Alhamra Art Council. The festival is being oragnised by the Ajoka Theatre where teams of different universities and theatres will perform. The festival is part of the Ajoka’s celebrations of 70th Independence Day of Pakistan. Ajoka’s play ‘Chaak Chakkar’ will be performed on the first day. The play is an adaptation of famous German play ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’. The play raises fundamental questions about the ownership of a nation’s wealth and resources and the true nature of justice and democracy. The play is being sponsored by the German Embassy in Pakistan. The play is a parable about a servant of a rich ruler who takes care of the royal baby abandoned by his mother. The story is based on a Chinese legend and placed in the Soviet Union around the end of the World War-II. In Shahid Nadeem’s Urdu adaptation, the story is placed in the period of political upheavals during the fall of the Mughal Empire in India. The central character is Rano, the maid, who rescues Subedar Akharzai’s baby boy and looks after him despite her poverty and the adverse security situation, even sacrificing the love of her fiancée. When the tide turns, the wife of the Subedar returns to reclaim the child, who happens to be the inheritor of a huge fortune. The case is presented before a rogue-turned- maverick judge. The tumultuous political situation and the “suomoto” arbitrary justice of Judge Ajab Khan make the play meaningful for contemporary Pakistan, while the period costumes and captivating songs in the Brechtian tradition, make the play entertaining and enjoyable. The play was first performed by Ajoka in 1985 at the Goethe Institute, Lahore during the time of General Ziaul Haq’s martial law. Published in Daily Times, April 10th 2018.