Ajoka’s Dara wins best play award in UK

LAHORE

"Dara", an outstanding theatre play originally produced by Ajoka Theatre and adapted by the National Theatre UK last year, received the best play award at the grand Eastern Eye Award for Art and Culture at a prestigious ceremony held at the magnificent Royal Festival Hall in London on May 22, 2016.

Earlier this month, Dara was selected as finalist for Eastern Eye Award where it had impressed the judges and that they crowned it with the best play award. 

Dara had 36 shows in Lyttelton Theatre, London, from January 20, 2015 till April 4, 2015 where it unanimously the audience. British media wrote rave reviews about the theme and story of the play and Telegraph, London, declared it best play of the decade.

The play is set in sixteenth century and highlights the historical conflict between two Mughal Princes Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb Alamgir. Dara was a spoilt crown prince with little battlefield experience and Emperor Shahjahan’s favourite.

He was also a poet of considerable merit, a painter, a serious scholar of comparative religion and above all, a practising Sufi, a disciple of Mian Mir and Mulla Shah Badakhshi, a close associate of mystic Sarmad. 

On the other hand, Aurangzeb was a religious fanatic, fired with an ambition to capture power, obsessed with the impossible dream of bringing the whole of the subcontinent under his “Islamic” rule. It is an intense domestic drama of global consequences for Hindustan then and for outer world now. 

Dara had been widely performed in Pakistan, India and America in various festivals and received universal acclaim from everywhere. It is a unique honour for Pakistan as Dara is the first play from whole south Asia to get this important award. National Theatre of the UK is a prestigious institution and recognition from it, is a big achievement for Pakistan, said Shahid Nadeem who wrote Dara in 2010.He also mentioned that in the play Dara's Sufi friend Sarmad had declared that "Dara will be the king." Well, Dara has been crowned now.

Sikh Yatrees: City District Government Lahore (CDGL) has completed all arrangements to give a warm welcome to 1,000 Sikh Yatrees coming to attend the Mela of Guru Arjun Singh in Nankana Sahib in June.

A meeting was held here on Friday and arrangements regarding the Sikh Yatrees from India were finalised. Officials said, according to the programme, 1,000 Sikh Yatrees would reach Lahore on June 7 to participate in various activities in Lahore, Nankana Sahib, Hassan Abdal and Gujranwala. They will return to India on June 30.