Michael Cooney’s Cash on Delivery couldn’t be a better insight into the vagaries of life — of how true love places doubt on basic trust and how empathy can be reduced to a bunch of cooked-up lies.

Adapted and written by Babar Jamal in Urdu for local audiences, Napa Repertory Theatre’s Sau Din Chor Kay keeps you in stitches throughout this comedy of lies on lies, and errors on errors. Amir Hasan (Hammad Sartaj) is unemployed and has been forging claims in the name of lodgers based on people who live in his locality. Unbeknown to his wife Samra (Zarqa Naz), he files claims and receives a sizeable amount of money at home, in the garb of make-believe tenants whom he declares as having either passed away or suffering from disabilities. One day an income support officer, Nadeem Farmaan (Farhan Alam), arrives at Amir Hasan’s home to get signatures on claim forms by a claimant, and is caught in the hilarious maze of lies and counter-lies.

Sau Din Chor Kay makes you realise how sympathy can be manipulated to one’s benefit and become a lucrative means of business. Hammad Sartaj retains stage front presence as he hysterically tries to fix a wayward situation.

Sau Din Chor Kay makes you realise how sympathy can be manipulated to one’s benefit and become a lucrative means of business. Hammad Sartaj retains stage front presence as he hysterically tries to fix a wayward situation. Hassan Raza performs well as Amir’s simple-minded cousin and next-door neighbour Irshad who unwittingly finds out that he has also become prey to his shenanigans. Amir had called the income support office Nadeem earlier the same morning to claim from Irshad’s supposed death, having left behind a family of six children and a widow.

The play Sau Din Chor Kay is hilarious. At the preview, one could spot director Uzma Sabeen chuckling away as the actors delivered their comic lines with full reverence. Commendably enough, the new resident theatre of Napa has been built to acoustic perfection as dialogues were completely audible despite the loud air conditioning. Most of the actors comprising Napa alumni and full-time students hold the promise of a future crop of good performers. The writer Babar Jamal could have saved us the trouble of appearing in the play himself as writers cannot necessarily act as well.

Uzma has come a long way. She has received accolades for the good work that she directs. She bagged the Pakistan Media Award 2013 in the Best Theatre category. While directing Napa students is just like manning a ship on cruise control, Babar Jamal’s script and Uzma Sabeen’s direction makes Sau Din Chor Kay, on from Sept 11 till Sept 28 at the Napa resident theatre, an experience worth our time and effort.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 14th, 2014