Daring to dream

It seemed too strange to be true "" that there was a theatre festival in Afghanistan! And that I was going to attend it!

The first thought that came to mind was "" aren't some parts of it still controlled by the Taliban? Who would dare to do plays in this hotbed of fundamentalism? What will these plays be able to say? And along with these questions was the firm belief that whoever is participating in or attending the festival will be promptly bombed out of existence.

Wrong. All these were the usual stereotypes that I was indulging in. Theatre has existed in Afghanistan for quite some time. It may have stopped temporarily during the Taliban rule but regained momentum as soon as the slightest opportunity presented itself.

It reminded me of a little yellow flower I had seen many years back suddenly peeping out of a snow-covered land on the first day the summer sun shone. As if it was ready "" waiting to assert its presence and breathe.

Truly, it was amazing "" the large crowds to watch the plays, the young theatre crowd jostling together, living and breathing theatre, and of course, the plays. The seven-day festival showcased 51 plays from 15 different provinces of Afghanistan. And this was the fourth such festival.

I landed in Kabul, a city surrounded by barren hills, on the fourth day of the festival and was taken to the grand Baborshah Garden (Babur's mazaar), where two plays were to be staged in the open-air space. I was quite excited to see a huge audience, largely consisting of men, seated on chairs, on kilims and carpets spread on every visible space.

And then I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw women in white appearing on stage. They began by enacting the lives of the mothers of various prophets to assert the significant role of women in the life of men. And then went on to show how the fundamentalists were beating young girls brutally to stop them from studying.

The play ended on a beautiful musical note with all the women in the cast surrounding a little girl, holding lanterns, showing their resolve to reach out to the light of knowledge and freedom.

An anti-Taliban play by women from the Herat province! And every single member of the audience cheered and clapped, joining their cause while I sat silently, moved by their courage, their desire for freedom, their passionate plea for peace and some little space for themselves.

In fact, all the other plays that I saw were grappling with this idea of peace, of putting together their lives in this war-torn country, and against fundamentalism, which was tearing their secular fabric apart.

Some plays ridiculed the extremists and warned youngsters against getting trapped by such people and their lunatic ideology. The theatre, though done without any technical infrastructure, reached out to the audience with great force.

It was an expression of their struggle to fight conservatism, and find some space and voice where it is repeatedly being stifled by different forces. The fact that these plays attack these problems head-on is a testimony to the truly liberal outlook of the people of Afghanistan.

The fact that they are still fighting on all fronts, and still dare to dream, underlines their deep belief in themselves. And their theatre reflected this belief.

Yet another surprise was the fact that Kabul University has a full-fledged department of theatre and cinema which has 270 students, consisting of a highly trained faculty. Even our theatre departments cannot boast of so many students.

Obviously this discipline attracts many youngsters, and from the enthusiasm through the entire festival one can be sure that theatre is there to stay and grow.