KARACHI: One of the international participants in the ongoing World Culture Festival, organised by the Arts Council of Pakistan, is the Norwegian writer, actor and producer Karen Houge. She is also someone who has strong views on the political situation that has gripped the world in recent times — with special reference to the Middle East. Interestingly, she chose to come up with a double bill on Sunday evening by working with, and directing, the council’s final-year acting students on seemingly personal themes. It was called The Untold Chapters.

Here, ‘untold’ is the key word. This meant that working for a little more than a week with the young artists, a particular subject was given to them for a collaborative play, as a result of which two short dramatic works emerged.

Before the performance, Ms Houge told the audience that she worked with 12 actors to create two pieces.

“The topic that they were given was ‘what is the truth that you were told as a child that didn’t turn out to be true’ and ‘what kind of advice would you give yourself five years ago’. That’s how we started and came up with two shows. The first one is called The Dancing Clown and the second, Generational Trauma. We made the ending for one of the shows 30 minutes ago, so this is a kind of a work-in-progress.”

The first play comes across as a short fable, with characters such as a turtle, a kangaroo, a balloon, a doll and scissors working in a circus controlled by a clown who acts more like the ringmaster cracking a whip every time the characters do something wrong. In the end, they get hold of the clown with the message that he can control their bodies but not their souls.

The second focuses on children’s relationship with their parents in households that suffer disintegration for one reason or another. The friction between a boy and his mother, for example, is nicely acted out and impressed the audience on Sunday despite the rather simple stage setting.

Since young actors were involved in the play, and also because the time that they had for preparation was not sufficient, one could not be harsh on them. Bearing that mind, The Untold Chapters was a nice little effort.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2024