Karachi:January 28:There was much excitement outside what is otherwise a quiet village in Badin that is home to those affected by the recent floods. Children frolicked around, and inside a yellow tent, men and women sat in partitioned walls. A stage had been set up, and the villagers were eagerly awaiting the street theatre which was to be on display by the students of Karachi University.

The students arrived on time, with props, ajraks and cameras, and seem prepared to put on a great show. The troupe, known as KUMAK, has done theatre before, but this was their first attempt at street theatre.

The performance was an adaptation of a Sindhi play by Nisar Bhanbhan. The main themes of the play are the importance of female literacy and self-help. The plot revolves around a flood-affected village, where residents have lost hope after waiting in vain for help from the government. With nothing to eat and no jobs, a motivated young woman by the name of Nooran decides to take the situation into her hands and begins attending adult literacy classes. Though she faces resistance from her husband, Rahmo, and a number of other villagers, she continues undaunted, and, in time, convinces other women from the village to attend the class as well.

The cast was slightly disappointed to learn that their audience could only understand Sindhi. Nonetheless, there were some phrases of Sindhi in the dialogue, and the actors were successful in letting their expressions convey the message to the audience.

“The act was not easy: there was no music for added effect, and the sound system was at best primitive. Also there was language barrier with the crowd; we had to look at all these aspects,” said Saad Rabbani, one of the actors.

The director of the play, Ismail Amin, called it “a satire about the urban-educated crowd, who think that because they are educated and can read and write, they can take the skills of the farmers, who provide our country with food, for granted”.

“The idea was to boost the morale of these villagers, who have lost everything in the floods, yet have still had the strength to pull them selves up and rebuild everything from scratch.” The carnival was organised by Women Industrial Social and Educational Society (WISES) as part of a project it undertook with Unicef.The news.