What sort of a theatre would it be with no seats; a theatre where the audience would suddenly be asked to be settled down “wherever” they are standing; a theatre where the actors would literally and physiologically be interacting with the audience; a theatre where making use of the conventional stage would be a mere one-thirds of the performance. Such a theatrical performance, neither known nor staged before in Pakistan, broke a fifth wall of the theatre, so to say. It is known as an “immersive theatre play”.
One such performance was staged in Lahore’s prestigious, century-old university, Kinnaird College for Women (KCW) on September 21.
Students of MPhil English Literature, under the supervision of Dr Nadia Anjum and Asma Niaz, in collaboration with the virtuosi from Arizona State University (ASU), Professor Boyd Branch and Dr Erika Hughes, successfully staged twin performances in one day, with a total audience of sixty per show.
The management body of the Kinnaird’s Najmuddin Dramatic Society was well-versed in accommodating hundreds of audience members in its distinguished, decades old Hladia Hall. However, that day, an audience of sixty was quite overwhelming, since every guest was treated with a considerable amount of attention, individually, as well as a group. The spectators were the highlight of this performance, since no connection for an indulgent theatre could be built in their absence.
It all goes back to the directors from ASU. Their idea was to devise a “microcosmic” vision of this “vibrant”, “whisky” and “life-changing” city – Lahore! For the two American professors, Lahore was a hub for such ethnical diversity – “amazing” people, “Sufi” music, “historical artefacts” and what not. Their plan was to bring it all within a theatre hall, if not just the stage. Furthermore, they believed in connecting and associating across borders and across the edges. Upon their landing in Lahore, what stroked the ASU professors most was the visual, auditory and oral transmission this city of “throngs of boys”, of “flower bracelets” and of “naan” had to offer, and they wanted the audience to “experience the city dramaturgically”. Like a “miniature painting”, they worked on various layers and strokes of conceptual theatre, making it a distinguished and a skilled piece of art, devised methodically over time and space.
The performance started off by giving an airline’s safety instructions, in sign language too. Each audience member was given a badge with a labelled number. They were divided in nine groups, with six to seven members in each group. These groups were of sight, smell, and hear. Once guided inside the hall, they had seemingly boarded a flight, named, “Lahore in Miniature”.
Furthermore, eccentricity being at its peak, the audience were asked to, “at times, be invited to stand, to move, to share, and to dance”. It led to a number of rib-tickling moments that the audience and the actors recalled once the performance had concluded. In the words of the directors, it is explained as: “Lahore in Miniature is an interactive and immersive theatre piece. This means that you will be invited to see, smell, and hear this performance. The journey will be one that engages three of your senses. However, like in life, not all of you will experience the same journey. At any given moment, some of you will see Lahore. Some of you will hear it. And some of you will smell it. Like a miniature painting that starts with tiny washes, we start with tiny brushstrokes of sights, sounds, and smells. But eventually this will blend together into the hustle and bustle of the city of Lahore. This city exists simultaneously through its rich Punjabi heritage and contemporary cosmopolitan residents of today. Lahore in Miniature explores both sides of Lahore, because in understanding our past, we can better experience the present.”
The highlight of this play was Prof Branch, dressed in a traditional white shalwar-kameez, complemented by a white waist-coat with a blue and yellow chunri ka patka, incorporating an entirely novel concept to theatre: he hung multiple floor-length, glass-curtains on the stage and projected candid, yet vivacious videos and stills of Lahori “khokhas” frying jalaybees and Lahore’s pulsating street sights, on to the curtains. The audience was seated on floor cushions on the stage and was literally living through those scenes right there and then.
Scents of Lahori gulaab ke phool, Kashmiri chaye, joshaanda, Roohafza, sookha dhaniya and tastes of Lahori mithai were experienced by the blindfolded audience: the ones, who guessed it right, were given a prize.
Three Punjabi folktales, namely, Heer Ranjha, Mirza Sahibaan and Sohni Mahiwaal, were performed, with live singing and live music being played by the performers – Mavra Ahmed’s euphonious voice along with Ranjha’s (enacted by Saleha Malik) passionate love mesmerised the audience: the actors were climbing on and off stage, stepping up and down the places where usually the audience is seated, and brushing past the audience settled, either on the steps, or on the carpet.
The essence was to indulge the audience in this miniature theatre to the extent that the audience was at times within the conspiring circle of Sahibaan’s bandit-like brothers or swimming and swaying to the flute’s rhythm in River Chenab.
