Daily Times

LAHORE: The Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre (CIFCET) has invited Ajoka Theatre from Pakistan for its upcoming annual edition, which would commence from tomorrow (Tuesday) and would continue for 11 days. According to Ajoka Theatre Spokesman Qasim, Ajoka Theatre Director and renowned writer Shahid Nadeem would represent Pakistan in Egypt’s prestigious annual theatre fiesta. Qasim further told that Nadeem would participate as the panel speaker in various sessions regarding issues faced by traditional and modern theatre. On September 27, he would conduct an exclusive theatre workshop with local and international theatre practitioners under the title of “Theatre in the Time of Jihad”. The workshop is already fully booked.

Before leaving for the festival on Monday, Shahid told media that Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre is a major international theatre festival attended by leading theatre groups from the Middle East and other parts of the world. The festival as a whole is a huge activity and has almost 8 to 10 simultaneous performances in various venues across the ancient city of Cairo, he added. Shahid mentioned that it is the second time that Ajoka Theatre is participating in the festival, as Ajoka had earlier performed its play “Shaher-e-Afsos” at the festival. He added that this would be good opportunity to learn about theatre in the Middle East and share experience about socially meaningful theatre and challenging the extremist mindset through the art of theatre.