Ajoka to stage Barri at festival

LAHORE: Ajoka Theatre is going to stage its internationally-acclaimed play “Barri” (acquittal) at the International Performing Arts Festival of National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) on Sunday (tomorrow).

Written by Ajoka’s Executive Director Shahid Nadeem, the play was earlier performed at the Theatre Row Theatre, New York, in 2017 and at the Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago in 2018.

“Barri” highlights the sufferings of four women inmates in a prison cell. They are: a woman activist, a mother arrested in place of her wanted son, a dervish woman charged with dancing in a shrine and a young woman who murdered her husband, thrice her age.

Earlier the play was produced and directed by Ajoka’s Founding Director Madeeha Gauhar specially for highlighting the sufferings of women prisoners and it was a bold indictment of the system based on gender discrimination in Pakistan.

It was also later adapted for PTV into popular drama serial “Neelay Hath” (blue hands) as well. The cast of the play includes Samina Butt, Nayab Faiza, Kanwal Khan, Eva Majid and Naseem Abass. It is a sensitive and poignant portrayal of the tensions and the bonding between the women from varying social classes.