KARACHI: Even if you do not believe in evolution, life at times does come across as if it is all about the dictum: the survival of the fittest. Novelists and playwrights have written stories in the form of allegories and fables to denote what lengths, in trying circumstances, man can go to in order to cling on to life. Polish playwright Slawomir Mrozek’s Out at Sea is one such brilliant attempt at exposing human weaknesses in the face of extreme difficulty in a lighter, funnily bizarre, way.

Director Zeeshan Haider’s version of the drama, which had its preview on Thursday and opened its four-day run at the Arts Council of Pakistan’s Studio II on Friday, is a noteworthy production primarily because of the deep understanding of the text that he and his actors seem to have.

The story of Out at Sea, produced by the Arts Council, has a raft at its heart. Three men — Thin (Bilal Ahmed), Medium (Mustafa Shah) and Fat (Hassam Irfan) — are marooned in the middle of the sea on that raft. They’ve come far deep into the ocean, lost their way and have nothing to eat. When faced with starvation, a discussion among the three of them begins as to which one of them will volunteer to become the other two’s dinner.

Out at Sea opens at Arts Council

In their effort to reach that decision, they employ some rational but rib-tickling methods, and at the end of it all, one of them agrees to volunteer (it will be a spoiler to tell who that person is who allows himself to be eaten).

Out at Sea is an intelligent study of human foibles. It highlights the cleverness that man employs when the question of his survival rears its head. Mind you, these are not ordinary individuals whose life is being discussed. They, during their chitchat on the boat, talk about parliamentary democracy, dictatorship and about as convoluted a subject as freedom. But all is done in a lighter vein.

The three main actors, along with Sajeel Ahmed who plays the characters of a postman and a butler, do a fine job. There are negligible issues related to enunciation, and the set for the raft could have been more believable. Otherwise, it’s a production that should be watched by theatre lovers, theatre practitioners and those who are interested in the intricacies of existence.

A round of applause for Zeeshan Haider!

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2022