A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, performed flawlessly, and with sheer emotional richness, by artist/designer Rehana Saigol and literary figure Imran Aslam, had Lahore head over heels at the Lahore Literary Festival.
Imran Aslam and Rehanan Saigol (right) enthralled the audience with their emotionally gripping performance in the play, Love Letters, at the LLF. They are now set to return to stage to replicate the same at Karachi’s Mohatta Palace.
InstepInterVIEW
The veteran artist speaks to Instep before taking center stage to perform
A.R. Gurney’s 1988 classic, Love Letters, at Karachi’s Mohatta Palace.
A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, performed flawlessly, and with sheer emotional richness, by artist/designer Rehana Saigol and literary figure Imran Aslam, had Lahore head over heels at the Lahore Literary Festival. The epistolary two-hander, which centres on the 50-year-long correspondence between Melissa Gardner and her childhood-friend-turned-love-interest Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, isn’t merely a narration of a page out of someone’s life. It, instead, is an intimate reflection of life’s rapturous moments, painful vicissitudes and its many influences echoed simply by putting a pen to paper. It reminds us that well before the dawn of technology, emails, text messages and superficial social media connections, life and its observations were chronicled and communicated through handwritten notes, and then cherished like relics of the past.
The play has been performed across various cultural spaces around the world and by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones, Shabana Azmi and Farooque Sheikh. However, Saigol and Aslam have been no less impactful. As the two protagonists return to treat Karachi with their masterful depiction of those gentler times – a journey they began back in 1999 – Instep speaks to Saigol on what’s different between then and now, the unexpected response from our ‘touch screen’ generation and the country’s renewed theatre scene.
Instep: You enacted the play with the same team (co-actor Imran Aslam and director Hameed Haroon) about 16 years ago. What are some of the differences you have noted in the execution of the play between then and now?
Rehana Saigol: An actor as good or as bad as the director’s vision. Hameed Haroon has this unfailing eye to catch nuances and go further into the sub text and I think more of that happened now. The play had more feeling and more emotion; the heart break was more palpable. You can sense it and feel it at every level. Also it’s a more polished production. Arif Mahmood’s photography has played a huge role in pointing to the story that unravels on stage. The images that are flashed on the giant screen are just fabulous. There is definitely a difference in the quality of production; it’s much finer and no expense has been spared. You can’t miss the work that’s gone into producing something which is ostensibly so simple. There is a lot more substance to it now.
Instep: Even though our times call for entertainment that is larger-than-life and cut-to-chase, the audience response to the play at LLF was overwhelming. Were you expecting this kind of a reaction?
RS: I was quite bowled over by the response we got at LLF. The first night we had 600 chairs in the hall and I remember telling Hameed that “no way are there going to be 600 people. It’s an English language play for God’s sake and two old people performing”. But we had 600 people sitting down within five minutes of opening the door and 400 more people were let in, who sat on the floor, and a lot of those were young people. They were listening with such rapt attention that it was a wonderful feeling. I was shocked to see that right in front of me, sitting on the floor, there were young men – forget the women because they tend to cry a lot anyways in sad plays or films – weeping unashamed. In this day and age where life is instant, for people to sit through something that unfolds ever so slowly, and for them to savour it, that was quite an eye-opener for me. I was touched and moved beyond belief to see the influence that just two old people and their voices had on such a young and diverse audience. The second night, we had 1500 people in the audience and I was told that 900 were returned from the gate, including my own brother. It was really humbling.
Instep: How does a play, which relies simply on two characters reading out letters that they sent to each other, manage to engage the audience for an hour and a half and evoke in them a strong sense of emotion?
RS: The play also includes music from more or less those times and music can really evoke strong feelings because so much of it is accompanied by nostalgia. When the track is played, it actually introduces what is about to follow, so Hameed has very skillfully laid the ground work for an emotional response. While on the face of it, it is just two people reading letters but there is so much more to it. It’s not just about their personal lives, but is a reflection of the times and what was happening in the society at that time. There is something in those letters – be it the universal experience of growing up, going through heartbreaks, coming together, separating; instances that we have all been through – that resonates with the audience, some way or the other.
Instep: In a play that required both of you to resonate your character’s existence just through vocal emotions, who do you think had a more difficult role to play between the two of you?
RS: They are two very different characters. Mine is a mess. Her life is a rollercoaster; her emotions are all over the place. He is more balanced of the two and his life follows an orchestrated, ethical path. I think Imran’s role is perhaps the more difficult one to play. I have seen Tumhari Amrita quite a few times and I always thought that Farooque had a more difficult role to play because his was a straight role, while Shabana was the more passionate one. Similarly I feel Imran’s role is more difficult. I would like to add that to succeed on stage one needs to be able to bounce off each other and give some space. Imran and I share this wonderful relationship, based on years and years of friendship, understanding and empathy, where we create a lot of space for one another. And so even though we do not look at each other, our ears are so attuned to each other’s voices that we lay the framework for each other’s lines. I love acting with him.
Instep: Lastly, having remained connected to the arts over the course of so many years, what is your opinion of the current, renewed theatre scene in Pakistan?
RS: It’s just fabulous how it’s coming into its own. Young actors are doing such wonderful work and people are writing original plays, perhaps not as many as they should be, but still there are lovely things being performed by amazing actors and this girl putting out musicals, it’s just fabulous. The theatre scene is booming and is vibrant. Even the kind of response theatre is getting now is wonderful. So many times the plays are sold out which goes to show that theatre is alive and well. For people like us in our twilight years, we derive satisfaction from this but even for younger actors, they can now possibly make a living out of it. Of course, there is always room for more. I am not saying we should sit back and be smug about it but whatever is happening needs to be lauded and recognized.
