KARACHI: “For theatre to survive, it requires three fundamental things — an actor, an audience member, and a small piece of land,” said veteran director Khaled Ahmed at the inauguration of the National Academy of Performing Arts’ (Napa) basement playhouse on Sunday.

After extensive renovations, a new space has been carved out and an intimate gathering was organised to showcase the potential of the space in taking forth the banner of the performing arts.

He called the new space an extension of the realm of intimate theatre where the same space is shared by the cast and the audience, and there is a greater level of intensity to every nuance of the production. And when Mr Mohyeddin walked on stage, each and every audience member felt part of his muted yet electrifying demeanour.

Mr Mohyeddin’s voice reverberated within the space while he recited poetry and read out prose in a manner which he himself calls Parhant. An extension of theatre, this form of dramatic reading is what Mr Mohyeddin is much lauded for, apart from his many other achievements, and yearly literary festivals make sure to hold a session especially dedicated to this. It is a known fact that halls where Mr Mohyeddin’s Parhant sessions are held are filled to the brim, with many angry faces visible outside the doors, vocal about not finding space to witness his genius in action.

Mr Mohyeddin spoke about how mere correct pronunciation is not sufficient to master Parhant. “How we join or separate phrases and sentences from each other is also important. Another important element of Parhant is where do we give the pause and why, as well as its duration. Also, every essay demands a separate pace.”

Knowing very well how to keep an audience spell-bound, Mr Mohyeddin then delved into the importance of inflection, or the increasing of the intonation or pitch when pronouncing a specific word. To illustrate, he gave the example of how Ghalib’s verses suffer at the hands of those who recite them without a care given to inflection.

From Miraji to Ghalib, Pitras Bukhari and Ibne Insha, Mr Mohyeddin, accompanied by Ustad Nafees on the sitar, read out several passages and essays to an enraptured audience that comprised veteran stage and television actors, musicians as well as foreign dignitaries.

William Shakespeare’s direction to his actors, through the mouthpiece of Hamlet, was also discussed. Mr Mohyeddin spoke how for almost 300 years, Shakespeare’s directions were largely ignored, but it was only towards the end of the 19th century that actors understood the stock behind his words.

With careful diction and eloquent expression, Mr Mohyeddin presented the immortal words of Shakespeare:

“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,

as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air

too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently ;

for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,

the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. ...

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action...”

After Mr Mohyeddin followed a performance by Ustad Nafees and Ustad Bashir Khan.

The new space, yet to be formally named, will be utilised by plays with smaller casts, as well as student-led productions.

Published in Dawn January 30th, 2017