After watching movies and dramas on Netflix and YouTube, live theatre specially in Urdu was a breath of fresh air on Sunday 20 October 2024 watching Adakar’s new play ‘Pali Hill Ki Ek Raat’ while catching up with a large number of family and friends at the same time.
Adakar Theatre celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024 by putting up two shows of the play, both full house establishing their position as an indigenous and unique cultural institution showcasing a large number of plays during the last decade in Urdu/Hindi as well as in English.
Adakar Theatre and Cultural Group was founded in 2014 as a community based not-for-profit theatre group, committed to bringing Australian communities together through theatre and cultural exchanges entertaining multicultural Australians in their own language and culture with a special focus on South Asian communities.
Founded by Saba Zaidi Abdi, the group comprises of like-minded theatre experts and drama lovers, passionate about promoting the cultural needs of emerging Indian & South Asian communities (to experience the rich cultural heritage of the Indian sub-continent) and to develop original scripts/stories based on migrant experiences.
Adakar has successfully produced numerous long and short plays, held theatre workshops and script-writing competitions having developed original drama scripts and participated in prestigious international festivals such as the Theatre Olympics in 2018 and Jashan-e-Rekhta in 2024.
The latest play ‘Pali Hill Ki Ek Raat’ is a psychological thriller about two sisters who take refuge in a world of their own creation when reality around becomes too difficult to handle.
Shrouded in mystery, the play is set in a Parsi household in Pali Hill, Bombay.
On a stormy monsoon night where nature’s fury knows no limits, their solitary existence is disrupted by the unexpected arrival of a young couple and a crazy aunt with a highly depressing climax that reverberates in your mind for a long time.
The play highlights the memories of past glory, tragedies of life at a young age, life of living alone in old age and its effects on mental health.
The playwright, Qurratulain Hyder was one of the most consequential writers in Urdu literature, an Indian novelist, writer, academic and journalist, born in 1927 whose writings beautifully blend the best of Urdu language’s rich literary traditions and modern sensibilities of 20th century women.
PALI HILL KI EK RAAT: CAST
Humaye: Suparna (Bobby) Mallick
Roda: Aparna Tijoriwala
Darab: Amit Kalra
Gulchehr: Sarwat Zahra
Aunt Firoza: Neena Sinha
Prof Kazimzade: Amitav Goswami
Hoshang: Munish Arora
Young Humaye: Sehba Khan
PALI HILL KI EK RAAT: CREATIVE TEAM
Direction: Saba Zaidi Abdi
Playwright: Qurratulain Hyder
Adaptation & Dramaturgy: Atul Tiwari & Saba Zaidi Abdi
Lighting: Ajoy Banerjee
Sound: Abdul Sajwani
Music & Effects: Vritant Soni
Set Design: Saba Zaidi Abdi & Keith Macbeth
Graphic Design: Kashmira Sachania
Make-up: Sandhya Bose
Props & Costumes: Mala Mehta, Saral Somaiya & Saba Zaidi Abdi
Stage Manager: Saral Somaiya
Photos & Promo Video: Naseem Khan
Ticketing & FOH: ParagTijoriwala
Videography: VarunTiwari
Compere & Programme Guide: Tamanna Abdi
CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF ADAKAR
2024 marks 10 years of Adakar. Over the past decade, Adakar’s major productions since its inception are:
Kanjoos (2014)
Wedding Album (2016)
Shri 420 (2017)
Where Did I Leave My Purdah? (2019)
Dozakh (2022)
Mughal Bachcha (2022)
Packing (2023)
Mangalsutra (2023)
Pali Hill Ki Ek Raat (2024)
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