Dastaan-e-Hazrat-e-Insaan staged on second day of Lahore's Alhamra Theatre Festival

A large number of people visited the Alhamra Art Centre, The Mall, in Lahore on the second day of the 24th Alhamra Theatre Festival on Tuesday and enjoyed the Ghayyur Theatre Productions Dastaan-e-Hazrat-e-Insaan.

Written by Dr Arif Amin, the major portion of the play was based on the poetry of Nazir Akbar Abadi [18th century].

The one-act play spanning over one hour and 20 minutes explained different phases of human life. The play was performed by two actors; the role of a juggler was played by Hamza Ghayyur and Mirza Umair acted as the disciple of the juggler.

Ghayyur Theatre was founded by the late television film and stage actor Ghayyur Akhtar back in 1973. Now it is being run by his son Hamza Ghayyur.

Hamza said his father had founded the theatre group for socially meaningful plays in 1973. “My father ran this group till 90s. Later commercial plays dominated and my father started losing interest in theatre”.

He said in 2019 he restarted work on the theatre group and staged a few plays. One of the prominent plays Ghayyur Theatre performed at Alhamra was Sanjh Khata in 2019. He said youth must be reintroduced to the theatrical activity by art councils. On Wednesday (today), Saamat Productions will stage the play Hor Da Hor.

Originally published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2022