KARACHI: We live in times where man-made disasters have assumed many shapes and forms. One of them is to do with the ecology of the world we inhabit. Today the word ‘terror’ is not just associated with bloodshed and tyranny of political leaders, but also with the way we lead our lives, the way we consume things and the way we dispense with them. The third foreign production on Thursday evening at the ongoing Pakistan Theatre Festival organised by the Arts Council of Pakistan was interestingly called Trashedy.

It was presented by a German group, directed by Leonardo Kees and developed by Kees, Daniel Matheus and Martin Rascher.

One might think that the title of the play, Trashedy, is a give-away in terms of its content; it’s the hybridisation of the word trash and tragedy/comedy. One would be right. But its makers make it more fun than that. Ostensibly, the focus is on ‘plastic cups and our ecological footprints’, and yet the way the performers put forward the idea on stage — by virtue of movement, pre-recorded doodling on screen, music and a display of vocal chords of the artists — is engaging. In the process, in a lighter vein, they urge the audience (read: people) to look after their environment the way only people can.

A German group stages a play at Pakistan Theatre Festival to raise awareness on plastic pollution

Not just that, the performance aims to highlight modern-day attitudes towards consumerism and technology. It begins with plastic cups, their use and then the throwing away of those cups as if once used they lose their meaning; and progresses, with the help of music and visuals, to underscore man’s association with inanimate objects that in contemporary times are treated like almost ‘animate’ beings. The result is apathy and indifference which can have long-lasting negative effects. A nice lesson to be learnt.

The hall was packed with schoolchildren who enjoyed the German group’s effort.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2023