In November the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop holds its annual performing arts festival, with dancers, musicians, puppeteers, theatre troupes and comedians from Pakistan, the subcontinent and around the world.
We went last night to see the Czech group KREPSKO
The outside of Gaddafi Stadium had been transformed. Coloured lights and banners lit the perimeter, and roving giants and stilt walkers turned the cold night into Carnaval. The locals wandered, wrapped in scarves and shawls, past booths selling t-shirts and brightly coloured candy, and the competing sounds of musicians.
Near the entrance Indian dancers performed in drag, elaborate makeup hiding the hard lines of their faces, bodices stuffed with cloth. Mehr joked that they only had eyes for Ehmet. He replied that there were enough kusra in Lahore, and that he didn’t need an imported act.
'The Smallest Woman on Earth' was part theatre, part puppetry and all absurd in that dark, slightly sinister, Eastern European way. Birdcages and harmoniums, suitcases and jars of pickled dolls appeared on stage. Everybody laughed, especially when the puppeteer dissected and ate the four inch woman who had been dancing so elegantly moments before.
Mahreen was there for the second time. I could see why.
My exhibition at Alhamra has been extended for another week, until the 8th of December. The opening on Monday went well, with friends and colleagues from BNU and the Lahore Arts community attending, and Angela Tierney from the Australian High Commission there to open it. It was great to see the last months work finally on display, and to begin planning the next one.
Angela is Australia's representative in Afghanistan. 'Home and Away' in Kabul, I hear you say?
