"DEKH TAMASHA CHALTA BAN"
(Watch the play and move on)

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November - 1992 (Lahore)


Written by: Shahid Nadeem
Directed by: Madeeha Gauhar

While the action is going on, innocent citizens, intellectuals, teachers, social workers are being accused of blasphemy and executed. By the end of the play, the executioners run out of victims and to satisfy their mad lust for blood, they get hold of the narrator of the play and hang him. The narrator keeps pleading that he is not a part of the play but they don’t listen to him. The message of the play is loud and clear and disturbing, you can remain silent spectators to sectarianism. The fire will engulf your house sooner or later.

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Review: The play is a scathing commentary on the governments implicit connivance with the intolerant religious establishment in denying basic human rights to the religious minorities. It is direct reference to the politics of the power which are continuously played out in Pakistan, by successive governments who will do any thing to try or keep on the right side of the fundamentalists. “Dekh Tamasha” has its movements of black humour and farcical song and dance. But it drives images of brutality in the audience, in an attempt to convey the reality faced by minorities living in Pakistan. It doesn’t mince words or make light to the issue but forces us to confront the unpalatable truth of blind prejudice in a land where the founding fathers sought to put an end to religious bigotry. It leaves the audience with some disturbing questions, the solution being left to the actions of the individual and the society in which we live.
(The News, Februry 4, 1994)