LAHORE, March 20: After a nearly 70 per cent drop in gate money as a consequence of the police raids and arrest of several artistes earlier this month, the city’s commercial theatre seems to have recovered without getting back much of the dance content.

“Almost 40 per cent of the audience that stopped coming to the theatre in the last couple of weeks, is back. The recovery would have been quicker had it not been for the temporary closure of the theatres on account of Muharram,” some theatre managers said. Excise and Taxation officials supported the claim.

Both the government and the artistes had realized early the damage the raids had done. Joint efforts for damage control, therefore, did not take long to start.

For its part, the administration appears to have decided quietly to keep the police away from the theatres, even permit some dance numbers in “proper dress” if “required by the script.” The plan to establish a “university of performing arts” has also been announced since. In addition, a hall of the Alhamra Arts Council would be “given free of charges to those producing art drama.”

The artistes promised stricter self-censorship and regard for socio-cultural sensitivities.

The new policy seems to be working well, at least for the time being. Yet, it leaves unanswered the question of a definition of the “official cultural policy.”

“We want theatre and other performing arts to flourish without any interference,” said a provincial official. But performing arts should not clash with the “culture” of the country, he added. Said he: “The city’s commercial theatre has steadily regressed into an obscene chaos over the recent years. The government wants only to return it to decency.”

The commercial theatre thrived during the 1980s and early 1990s. Its audience largely comprised the entertainment starved lower middle class. Many a cinema was replaced by theatre halls which flourished.

“The government always wanted the stage dramas to abide by the social and moral values of the society,” the official said. Of late, he complained, it had broken free of these sanctions. This, he maintained, had prompted the government to take action. That the civil and military officials concede off-the-record that the police had “overdone” the bit, is another story.

Stage actor Suhail Ahmad said the drama had “lost its original artistic sheen and denigrated into total vulgarity. Double-entendres, vulgar dialogues, and abuse form a major part of the so called stage comedy... We must admit that and try to correct the mistakes instead of blaming the government.”

He said, however, it was “wrong and condemnable to unleash brute force on the hapless artistes”. He insisted that “one should not lose sight of the purpose behind the action. It’s a typical case of the ends justifying the means. Now, all the stake holders must try to ensure that this does not happen again.”

“The end was right but the means certainly wrong,” said Dr Enver Sajjad. No one defends obscenity but one has to define a policy before enforcing it. In the absence of a proper definition, he said, anything and everything could be included. Asking the police to implement such a vague concept was a “recipe for disaster.” The government, he said, could have easily “isolated” a few artistes it wanted to rein in. Serving them notices was one option. Banning them for a certain period was the next step. “But setting the whole forest on fire to catch a thief was wrong and condemnable,” he asserted.