KARACHI: In 2024, the Arts Council of Pakistan put up three short plays written by Bee Gul titled Badal Gaey Ho, Prologue and 15 Minutes Aur. From Friday to Sunday, the council re-staged the dramas directed by the seasoned theatre person Khalid Ahmed as part of its ongoing School of Visual and Performing Arts alumni series.
The three pieces are not thematically connected. One can say, though, that at the heart of it is the not-so-smooth man-woman relationship because in each of the stories — even in Prologue where there’s no woman actor — the subject of love and relationships comes into focus.
Badal Gaey Ho uses the common trope of a waiting area (at the bus stop) where a man (Hasan Raza) and woman (Kaif Ghaznavi) are sitting on a bench — the latter is looking at her phone, the former is sitting in an upright position. They don’t seem to have an apparent link. It’s when the third, rather uncouth, character (Osama Ranjha) arrives, that the lines they exchange start to paint a picture. This means, issues pertaining to a marital set-up are at the heart of their discussion.
Prologue is said to be based on the life-experiences of Khalid Ahmed (performed by himself). His conversation with a doctor sets the tone for his act, hinting at his disturbed mental state. Shortly after, he launches into a monologue. Taking nothing away from Khalid Ahmed’s hard work for which he should be commended, the shortness of the script, one felt (even when it was first produced a couple of years back but one didn’t mention it) left much to be desired. The speech needed a bit more fleshing out, not to reveal all, but to express more.
15 Minutes Aur adapted from a Gabriel Garcia Marquez story homes in on, as it is described on the council’s social media pages, ‘a woman’s desperate search for an alibi slowly reveals a chilling truth’. Kaif Ghaznavi plays the character of that woman and Khalid Ahmed essays the role of the man whose restaurant she frequents. It’s the longest play of the set.
Bee Gul writes lines that are simple and not hard to understand. Instead of opting for the route of the metaphor, which can test the viewer gumption to comprehend a situation, she lets the actors explain the crux of the story while exchanging lines. Kaif Ghaznavi in her performance uses that technique well.
Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2026
