Written by: Farheen Abdullah
Posted on: February 25, 2019 | 
| 中文
(L-R) Faraz Ali as Moosa, Ifrah Khalid as Safia, Umar Naru as Esa and Kanwal Khan as Noori
Shah Sharabeel, a director and producer who has been a part of the theatre industry for almost three decades, has returned to the stage after five years with his first Urdu Musical, and theatre enthusiasts could not be more excited. The creator of Bombay Dreams, Moulin Rouge, and Phantom of the Opera is now producing Twins Apart at the Arts Council Karachi.
Inspired by Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, Twins Apart tells the story of fraternal twins, Esa (Umar Naru) and Moosa (Faraz Ali), who are separated at birth. While one is adopted by Maryam (Faiza Mahmood), the other is left behind with his birth mother, Safia (Ifrah Khalid). Written by Kulsoom Aftab, Twins Apart has a strong storyline, where Esa and Moosa continue to run into each other by chance and become best friends, without knowing the truth about their identities. However, Maryam is adamant on keeping the brothers separated. An interesting twist comes in the form of a shared love interest in the beautiful Noori (Kanwal Khan).
With a blend of mystery, humour, drama, emotion, and dance, Twins Apart leaves its viewers at the edge of their seats. The play is longer than two hours, unlike most local productions, but it does justice to its length. The opening dance sequence, with white costumes which glow in the dark due to the brilliant use of UV lights, is enough to grab the audience’s attention. Shah Sharabeel does wonders with the way he utilizes the set, to the extent that he has gotten a rickshaw driver to perform a wheelie on stage, as an action sequence.
Before the performance began, Sharabeel addressed the audience and promised a creative play with limited ‘masala’ content, and he delivered just that. Instead of hiring professional actors, Sharabeel has brought in fresh faces, which proved to be an intelligent decision. Umar Naru (as Esa) danced, sang, acted, played the guitar and the harmonica, and turned out to be a true star. Faraz Ali (as Moosa) showed his utmost dedication to the project, by continuing to perform even though he had dengue fever. As a heroin addict in the play, he left the audience stunned with his acting skills. Faraz and Umar also did a terrific job at acting as 7 year old children, in the first half of the play. Twins Apart is Kanwal Khan’s (as Noori) first theatre performance, but in no way does the actor look like a newbie. She acted with conviction, and her dance solo was truly commendable. The biggest treat for the viewers came in the form of Rehan Nazim, the narrator (and also a dancer), who not only pushed the plot forward, but also moved the audience with his pitch-perfect vocalization. His original song, Chal Diye, was particularly poignant.
However, one cannot be sure if the play qualifies as a musical. The most important element of a musical is that actors sing live, but Twins Apart only featured live vocals by Rehan and Umar. The dances were choreographed brilliantly, but the songs had been pre-recorded, and a couple of them weren’t original either. Moreover, at least half of the play consisted of dialogues only.
A couple of other errors were noticeable. With regards to representation of class, Noori belongs to a low-income household and lives in the same neighbourhood as Safia (who works as domestic help), yet when she first appears on stage, she’s wearing a jumpsuit and sneakers. Moreover, Faiza (as Maryam) wasn’t convincing as a woman who’s been married for 15 years, simply because she looked too young. Another trivial but frustrating factor, was the blatant advertisement of Pepsi within the play. While Pepsi was indeed the sponsor, the constant reminders throughout the story were ridiculous.
For someone who was watching a Stage Nomad Production after a year and a half, I was disappointed by the altercation between some members of the audience and the management, which delayed the performance by half an hour. It left me wondering if the management is still struggling with public relations. However, in no way did this effect the quality of Twins Apart, and Karachiites are in for a treat till 17th March. Islamabad and Lahore are next on the team’s itinerary!
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