PRESS REVIEWS
HUIS CLOS (IN CAMERA)
DAWN, Karachi
June 17, 1983
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE
by Najma Sadeque
Hell is the strangling of human freedom by
the intrusion of other human beings. Hell is the frustration of
self-assertion. Hell is being trapped in the conjurings of the
mind.
Indeed, by being inescapably susceptible or sensitive or
subject to other people, hell is oneself not being able to control one's
destiny. And the uncertainty and endlessness of it all feeds on itself to
make further hell of an already tortured mind.
It was this
concept of hell that was the other day introduced to a society more familiar
with fire and brimstone, on a well-improvised stage-in-a -round in the versatile
open-air inner "square" of the Alliance Française.
It was, to
begin with, a bold and welcome choice by journalist-from-out-of-town Ivy Goh
Nair who produced the play. It was deftly directed with tremendous
imagination by her husband Chandran Nair of UNESCO who has a particular flair
for translating ideas from one medium to another.
Thanks to him
the entire performance--which was not made easier by being a continuous
one-scene act from beginning to end without a break--flowed smoothly as one
cohesive unit.
Except an almost unnoticeable very brief memory
block on the part of one of the gentlemen, no one flubbed their lines. Not
that this has to happen, but not to have the relief of breaks between scenes and
the moral support of a prompter without his being seen and heard is perhaps one
of the most trying tests for a performer.
While Sajeeruddin
Khalifa did a creditable job and Irteza Shah may have found his forte at last as
a deadpan valet, Yasmin Ismail and Azarmeen Moini as the other two inmates of
hell dominated the performance;
Yasmeen slipped superbly into
her unconventional role (which took no little courage to accept, as taboo in
this society as it is) with confident ease, while Azarmeen who made her debut
this year, etched herself among those few who will continue to be sought after
for English amateur theatre's better plays.
Sajeeruddin tended
to be loud and melodramatic at times but this did not decry his potential.
He was far better during rehearsals but one could symphathize with him, being
the only one to suffer a hot, uncomfortable jacket under hotter lights which
really made him look like he was in hell.
Playing to a full
house (while many had to be turned away) IN CAMERA was a soothing
departure from Karachi's spate of drawing-room comedies. For Sartre's
representation was of a universal nature and left one with more than an evening
well spent; it also left one with food for thought.
--N. Sadeque
EXTRACTS FROM THE PROGRAMME
PRODUCTION
Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ivy Goh Nair
Director . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .Chandran Nair
Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . . Saleem
Khan
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Taimur Suri
Costumes . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .Ivy Goh Nair
Make Up . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . Chandran Nair
House Manager . . . . . . . . . . Jean
François pluquet
Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C.
Nair/J.F. Pluquet
Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. Irteza Shah
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
Special thanks to Mr Raymond Bernard, Director, Alliance Française of Karachi for his assistance and encouragement without which this production would not have been possible. Thanks also to the staff of the Alliance who have assisted in this production in one way or another.
In Camera was first produced in English in 1946 at the Arts
Theatre Club,London, with Donald Pleasance as the valet, Alec Guiness as
Garcin, Betty Ann Davies as Estelle and Beatrix Lehmann as Inez, by Peter
Brook. The action of the play takes place in a single room in
Hell. It is a room decorated in a particular style (second empire) and in
which the only things to be found are a bronze statue, a table on which lies a
bell and an ordinary paper knife and three sofas (wine red, blue and livid green
in colour).
For the present production, which as far as we are aware, is
the first attempt at this play in the round, it has been necessary to do away
with the sofas and the mantlepiece on which the bronze statue stands according
to Sartre's stage instructions. It will be necessary for play goers to
lose themselves and become one with the actors and to see sofas where there are
only cane poofs. They will also have to walk the room with the three
inmates.
KARACHI DAY BY DAY
Morning News, Karachi
June 07, 1983
Hiroshima & Apathy A Sartre Play
by Nusrat Nasarullah
. . . . Unlike PACC which has its English plays for more nights than one, the Alliance Française de Karachi had its English Play for just one night. And from what I heard from Ivy Goh Nair, I am told that over 660 tickets were sold. This was last Thursday.
The object of saying this is that were the PACC to have its plays for one night or two it would find that is it would be doing better financially. I am just speculating.
The play was Jean Paul Sartre's In Camera. It was produced by Ivy Goh Nair and directed by her husband, Chandran Nair, who works for UNESCO and is a poet whose lines have so much feeling.
The cast: Yasmeen Ismail who was easily the best, than Khalifa Sajeeruddin, Irteza Shah and Azarmeen Moini. And the action of the play: In Hell.
It is pertinent to mention here what the Director of the Alliance Française de Karachi said in the little modest brochure that was produced on the occasion:
. . . .Is it a philosophical play? will ask those who know something about Sartre. The answer is yes and no. No because it is possible to enjoy the play without bothering about philosophy. But Sartre himself has said that there is in "Huis Clos" more than what one can see. One feels that there is something like deep thought which underlies the words, that there is yet something more to understand beyond what the actors say and do. What you see in the play will depend ultimately on how you can or want to see.
Can we conclude with this?
---Nusrat
Nasarullah