Akbar Ahmed’s Noor unites Pakistani, Indian cast for interfaith harmony

The AmericanUniversity in WashingtonDC and Global Performing Arts will present playwright Akbar Ahmed’s critically acclaimed play Noor in September, featuring a mixed Pakistani and Indian cast.

Directed and produced by Manjula Kumar, Noor will be performed at the KatzenArtsCenter at the AmericanUniversity September 14 and 15.

Noor is a two-act play about the abduction of a young woman named Noor and her three brothers who represent fundamentalism, mysticism, and modernity, three different faces of a Muslim community.

In 2012, Noor was performed at the AmericanUniversity of Iraq, Sulaimani where an Arab-Kurdish cast explored the ethnic tensions in their region.

Now Kumar, a distinguished director and programme manager at the Smithsonian Institution, is staging a production featuring an Indian-Pakistani cast to deal with their own historic conflict.

The cast includes Rishi Das, Sridhar Mirajkar, Suresh Dhir, Priyanka Srinivasa, Yashodhan Ghorpade, Uday Wagle, Ali Imran, Laila Zafar, and Fatah Eshaqzai.

“This production brings together an Indian director, a Pakistani playwright, and a mixed Indian and Pakistani cast,” said Akbar.

“As the play dispels the misconceptions about the Muslim world and teaches religious tolerance, we hope it helps to pave the way for peace and collaboration between Pakistanis and Indians,” he said.

Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at AmericanUniversity. He is also former Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom. Ahmed is an award-winning author, playwright, and poet, and his works include The Trial of Dara Shikoh, Waziristan to Washington: A Muslim at the Crossroads, Suspended Somewhere Between, and most recently, The Thistle and the Drone: How America’s War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam.

The AmericanUniversity in WashingtonDC and Global Performing Arts will present playwright Akbar Ahmed’s critically acclaimed play Noor in September, featuring a mixed Pakistani and Indian cast.

Directed and produced by Manjula Kumar, Noor will be performed at the KatzenArtsCenter at the AmericanUniversity September 14 and 15.

Noor is a two-act play about the abduction of a young woman named Noor and her three brothers who represent fundamentalism, mysticism, and modernity, three different faces of a Muslim community.

In 2012, Noor was performed at the AmericanUniversity of Iraq, Sulaimani where an Arab-Kurdish cast explored the ethnic tensions in their region.

Now Kumar, a distinguished director and programme manager at the Smithsonian Institution, is staging a production featuring an Indian-Pakistani cast to deal with their own historic conflict.

The cast includes Rishi Das, Sridhar Mirajkar, Suresh Dhir, Priyanka Srinivasa, Yashodhan Ghorpade, Uday Wagle, Ali Imran, Laila Zafar, and Fatah Eshaqzai.

“This production brings together an Indian director, a Pakistani playwright, and a mixed Indian and Pakistani cast,” said Akbar.

“As the play dispels the misconceptions about the Muslim world and teaches religious tolerance, we hope it helps to pave the way for peace and collaboration between Pakistanis and Indians,” he said.

Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at AmericanUniversity. He is also former Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom. Ahmed is an award-winning author, playwright, and poet, and his works include The Trial of Dara Shikoh, Waziristan to Washington: A Muslim at the Crossroads, Suspended Somewhere Between, and most recently, The Thistle and the Drone: How America’s War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam.