‘Lysa’ — of love, loss and delusions

Make Believe Productions’ first-ever presentation staged at Alliance Francaise 

Karachi

With new theatre production houses popping up in the city, it is pleasant to see Karachiites being afforded a chance to watch plays on stage, although the ticket prices can at times be too steep for the general public. 

Staging their first play at Alliance Francaise, ‘Make Believe Productions’ presented ‘Lysa’, a story of love and loss with an unexpectedly twisted end. 

Written and directed by Noor Mian, who is currently a university student, ‘Lysa’ revolves around four main characters – the General, his wife Lysa, his best friend, the Lieutenant, and a Psychiatrist. 

Given that no names have been assigned to any character except Lysa, it was easy to gauge that the character was an integral one.   

Starting off with the General getting accolades at his wedding anniversary for a recent victory where he single-handedly killed a hundred men, it is revealed that his headaches keep worsening and he relies on medication to stand straight for long while. 

Later, as he dines with Lysa, both expressing their undying love for each other, she withdraws from him after reminding him of the brutalities of war. The General consoles her with a bouquet osf black roses, except he faints when he draws nears her.

The next thing the audience knows, the General is at a psychiatric ward and is on the verge of killing the psychiatrist who makes him realise that he has killed his own wife. However, the rest of the play makes the audience think that what goes around comes back around until the end is reached when the plot twist leaves all in awe.

Apart from Suhaee Abro (Lysa), who was great as ever, it seemed that the rest were amateur actors. Noor Mian’s (The General) performance was also appreciable, yet there were times when his dialogue delivery wavered. Nevertheless, Mian deserves credit for he not only acted, but had also directed and written the play. 

Kumail Raza (the Psychiatrist), who produced the play along with Shahnur Chauhan (the Lieutenant), gave all the right expressions, while Chauhan also put in a noteworthy performance as someone whose two sides were nicely covered.

As the moving spotlights at the start eventually began to spin the audience members’ heads, the lighting, one felt, could have been improved too. Given that the play was staged in an open space, it was hard to comprehend the dialogues of some actors who weren’t close to the hanging mics and, perhaps, another method of voice projection would have suited the play better. However, given that it was their first ever production, the effort deserves appreciation and we hope to see even better productions in the future.

The play was a charity endeavour as all ticket proceeds went to Konpal Child Abuse Prevention Society.