Karachi: Poverty and circumstances can make people do things that are sometimes beyond comprehension. A play revolving around this theme was staged on Monday at the German Consulate. A presentation of Tehrik-e-Niswan, ‘Woyzeck’ is an adaptation of a story written by Georg Buchner, a 22-year-old German playwright who died in 1837 before he could complete the script. Due to its powerful relevance to society, writers and translators have used it in their presentations and continue to do so, by completing the fragmentary scenes and adapting it to their situations.

The play’s poignant story revolves round a character, Woyzeck, who is an extremely poor man lacking the strength and will to stand up to his superiors who demand abject submission from him in everything, which includes bizarre medical experimentation by a doctor. A guinea pig who has no control over his life, his helplessness and anger bring him to a point where he ends up destroying the most precious thing in his life — the woman he loves. The story unfolds through a series of vignettes.

While remaining close to the essence of the original play, the directors, Sheema Kirmani and Anwar Jafri, have followed the Nautanki style of presentation and design. “In our adaptation of ‘Woyzeck’, we deliberately chose not to set the play in a defined period of time and geographic location as the perennial tragedy of human jealousy and the conflict between power and powerlessness are timeless and universal.”

As in Sheema’s previous presentations, this one, too, has songs, dances and a lot of humour to give the play, which tends to have its dark moments, a lighter side to it. In the play, which was held in collaboration with the German Consulate, what was interesting for the audience was the German Consul-General Hans-Joachim Kiderlen’s participation in the play as one of its characters. He also donned a horse’s costume in one of the vignettes.

Throughout, the German flavour of the play is evident even with a very local setting. With a simple backdrop and appropriate lighting, all the segments of the story were masterfully presented, especially the mela scene with its colourful ambience and hustle and bustle. And it was also evident that the performers had rehearsed well, with Adnan Shah alias Tipu and Rubya Chaudhry shining in their roles. How the changing world affects ‘small people’ of today, the aspirations and abuses they go through and the misunderstandings created by others, has been portrayed well by all the performers. The play’s serious theme would definitely appeal more to the serious-minded audience.

Incidentally, the first draft of the script of Woyzeck was made by poet and writer Fehmida Riaz, but due to a tragedy in her family she was not able to continue with the work and Anwar Jafri then completed the script. The 80-minute play will be shown at the Arts Council from March 27-30.