Daily Times

The Lights dim, the stage is set, we are in a Café. Three best friends are on a mission to help one of them win the heart of a girl – Mayhem ensues.

‘Aapka Matlooba Number’, a theatre play by All40ne productions, is currently being staged in Islamabad till May 14th, coming soon to other cities, it is about millennials, although certainly entertaining for those older and younger too. It attempts to analyse infatuation, Love and its pitfalls. Although much of the humour is farcical, there is a subtlety and depth to the quandary of relationships between men and women and parents in South Asia.

Timid Taimur played by Affan Mir is head over heels for glamorous Zara (Mariam Saleem –Some like it Hot, PaunayChaudha August, Art by Yasmina Raza). Flamboyant Yasir played by SalmaanShaukat (Verna, Parchi)awkward genius Babar (Omer Abdullah – Zard Paton ka Ban) and down to earth Maria (Marjan Fatima Bokhari) are the trusted loyal friends of Taimur who will move and climb mountains and hilariously trip over themselves to support their friend in this seeming mission impossible to win love.

The ensemble cast of fourteen peopleis hilarious to watch and the comedic timing is on point. The audience was laughing out loud throughout the play

The ensemble cast of fourteen people is hilarious to watch and the comedic timing is on point. The audience was laughing out loud throughout the play. Saiqa and the un-named waiter were played by experienced actors Xenia Abid and Moid Aslam Rajput respectively. Ramis (Unas Khalid) and Chaudhry Sahib (IsrarulHaq) and his wife (Bushra Yamin) and Hina Hathori (Sanwa Ali)also did justice to their roles.

Co-Producer and Co-Playwright Hassan Jawad Rana shared about his technique: “Taimur’s character played by Affan has the biggest change. Our goal was to show that when one is not honest with themselves, they cannot be responsible. If they don’t take responsibility for their own life, they cannot be confident. Taimur, albeit in a humorous manner, learns the hard way to stand up for himself.”

“Art imitates life and life imitates art. Arts reflect the state that society is in. If you look at our play, you can see we have shown how confused our youth is. Why are they the way they are? Why are our concepts of relationships deteriorating? Why are we basing our personalities on a thumbs up ‘like’ or blue ticks on WhatsApp? Theatre is a genre which is a raw, in-your-face and immediate artist to audience event. The best actors come from the stage.”

“No civilisation has ever thrived which did not give its due respect to its language and literature. I am an assistant professor at Iqra University in the Media Department and I teach what I practice and get students involved in practical work. I advise everyone interested in this field to come and work in each department of production. Even if you are an actor, you should learn lighting, art-direction, wardrobe, printing, marketing, tea-making, and so forth.”

“Comedy is essentially building an expectation and killing it. In comedy, either the situation is funny, the character or the interaction is funny. There must be balance between them. Regarding the timing, one must consider the words and the thought process of the audience to bring out that perfect delivery. Sometimes this takes practice and testing variations. Some people are naturally gifted. It is always good to observe what they are doing. I remember once when my standup comedy coach in Kansas told me to purposely throw off the timing on jokes. I didn’t get laughs that night and I knew where the golden spot was.”

“As struggling artists, we cannot afford the big venue names available to us and many don’t even take theater seriously. Some are in poor condition and aren’t built to be multi-purpose. However, when we saw Aiwan-e-Quaid auditorium, we fell in love with the personal audience-stage feel of the place. The acoustics, the ambience, the location was lovely. If the management of the hall wasn’t so cooperative, we could not have done this play and we are utterly thankful.”

Aapka Matlooba Number is directed, co-produced, and co-written by Atif Siddique. With over a decade and a half of experience in the performing arts, he teaches media and film design at Iqra University. Since Seventy percent of the cast are newcomers to acting the rehearsal process was a lot like a theatre workshop. He says our society is confused and we tend to come of age over a decade late. The playwright elaborates it is a mirror to society about what it means to be a man and woman. Atif’s favourite scene to direct was the emotional scene between the three lead characters.

“It was the moment our cast totally got absorbed in the script. The toughest scene was the last one. It’s chaotic and always difficult to co-ordinate”.

Published in Daily Times, May 9^th 2018.