LAHORE: Maas Foundation, in collaboration with the Lahore Arts Council, will stage a play titled Kafan on Dec 14 and 15 here at Alhamra, The Mall.

Maas Foundation’s Artistic Director Aamir Nawaz has directed the play he had adapted from a short story written by legendary Munshi Premchand in 1935, who is remembered as the father of modern Urdu-Hindi short story.

About the upcoming play, Nawaz says it is about two characters, Ghaisu and Madhav, who live in abject poverty and are too lazy to work.

As the story unfolds, Madhav’s wife dies and he collects money for her last rites. The two characters go to buy a shroud for the deceased woman, but instead waste the money on food and drinks.

“In my opinion, Kafan is the best South Asian story I have ever read.

The harshness and bleakness of the story really got me and the utter awfulness of the two characters was just something else. Above all that, the final scene at the wine house sheds light on human nature, which can really be questioned,” says Nawaz.

Maas Foundation had previously performed this play at Alhamra in 2016 and 2018 during Alhamra Theatre Festival and again at the National Theatre Festival 2017 held at the PNCA, Islamabad, receiving a spectacular response from the audience.

The play’s cast includes Afzaal Nabi, Zaheer Taj, Dr Zoya Qazi, Aman Iqbal, Tanveer Khalid, Ahmad Ali and Kashif Nazir. The music has been designed by Imran Nawaz, while Khalid Ejaz is the media coordinator and Aamir Ali associate director of the play.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2024