Street theatre returns to Lahore

Living in Lahore, one must have stuck in a rush caused by protesters chanting slogans and blocking roads. The difficulties and botheration protesters create for citizens raise a sense of disliking in the minds of people for protests.
Keeping this in mind, a group of youngsters has shaped their protest as a form of theatre.
Goonj Theatre is a resistive theatrical group, which stages plays on public places regarding social and political issues. They claim to be the only ones in the provincial metropolis using street theatre as a mode of protest and awareness. “Youth is not associated with any political group but has been active on political and social issues since the Musharraf era but Goonj Theatre takes pride in using an innovative way of street theatre to raise their voice on different issues. We brought some innovation in activism and joined it with performing arts, the result is Goonj Theater,” director Anas says.
The group has presented plays on load shedding and US involvement in Pakistan. In the recent past, it protested against killing of three people by an American citizen by staging “Maut Ka Khel” and “Bhagty Davis Ki Langoti Hi Sahi” at different places in Lahore. Goonj plan to demonstrate a new show very soon on impacts of the doctors’ strike on patients in hospitals.
Anas says that his team learned this way of protesting from the historical character of “Jugni”, which became a symbol of protest through a song performances against the British rule in the sub-continent. Describing the history of protest theatre in the sub-continent, script writer and producer of Goonj Theatre Shoaib Ahmed said that in the past, theatres used to have cultural and folk tastes but during the British rule, theatre got a resistive style.
Different groups started staging their performances having a protective touch in local fairs and events. After partition, both in Pakistan and India, socialist movements used this way to propagate their message. In Zia’s regime, such theatrical works went underground. But later with downfall of other performing arts, street theatre also declined but Goonj Theater gave a rebirth to this tradition.
“It is not just a way to register protest. In fact, it has other dimensions as well. We present plays to bring an issue to mainstream and create awareness among the public and I think these dimensions are more important than just registering our protest” Shoaib says. “We do not associate ourselves or our performances with one certain ideology because this creates a hindrance for those belonging to other schools of thought. So, we remain acceptable for all including rightists for leftists”, Shoaib says.
Another aspect of street theatre is its interactive nature. Performers get to know the reaction of masses immediately. “We can judge by reactions of our viewers that how much our performance is related to their issues,” Shoaib says. As the main audience of street theatre are laymen, so the message is conveyed through use of street wisdom and language. “We need to use a mix of Punjabi and Urdu to create an environment of understanding with our audience,” Anas says.
“We have with us young people from universities and also workers. A rescuer of 1122 Asad Rabbani often takes out time and acts in our performances. There are many others as well,” Anas says. Talking about the response of the audience, an activist of Goonj Theatre Naveed Akbar says that when they start playing before the public, they laugh at us and make fun but as the performance unfolds the message behind it, people get serious and in the end they praise and appreciate the actors.
“We get feedback as well from spectators. They tell us the issues they feel are important,” Naveed says. Shoaib is not sure about the effects of street theatre on the public because of long gaps between plays. But he says that they are bound by financial constraints. “We arrange sound system and other required things with our own finances. So we can perform only when we have enough resources to spare for the cause,” Shoaib says.