Airport - Loosen Your Seatbelts

Since the past few weeks, Islamabad has witnessed The Curtain Raiser’s “Girah”, the play, and now “Airport” by Eleven Productions. Finally, theatre is back in Islamabad, and it will be back in Pakistan in the coming days, or months and years… a good sign for the thespians and artists too as commercial theatre is back too. Applause. Shouts out to Saad Farrukh Khan, the director and writer of “Airport” for his efforts to revive theatre, that too, commercially, with a young lot of actors. Great job guys.

The play features a caste of 22 actors, all aspiring and young actors. There goes so much thought when creating a play, or creating a situation, to make a scene out of it. And so much thought goes inside, when giving a situation to a character, to be able to execute that finely: that’s a heck of a job. I’d have the audacity to critique, i.e. the situations given to the characters were not the best, so the dialogue and conversations for some characters were not the best, in the sense of writing. But that is only if one is to observe it in detail and view it minutely.

However, that is not the case for the caste. The caste, indeed, did a great job, hats off! The absolute wit in the conversation of the Doctor’s character, or that of the Wife’s character. At times, the characters get very predictable, one is able to predict their next move, or how the character would react to a certain situation, for instance, a very predictable reaction of almost every character was to shut the other character up or cut them off by a mere slap. That gives the audience comic relief, but in my view that is not how a situation should be dealt with, as there’s more action and thrill in it undoubtedly, but that restricts the actor for a better performance, which is possible through only a better response and not reaction.

Slap brings about the clap, but what happens after that? The situation changes, another character gets up, takes over the situation, and the situation changes entirely. Such quick changes require the audience to condition them with the situation, ideally, the audience should adapt, but the whole emotion/ gets lost, with so many instant changes. One aspect, which should be addressed is the jumping to conclusions aspect.

The play is full of surprises: too many to count. There are so many things which are addressed, like the way each character opens up, and that reflects the tale of any community of the society. The play with its progression, at times, it gets really wacky, at times it gets really humorous, at times, there’s emotion, there’s drama, there’s action, and another unique aspect that Airport offers, is the inclusion of an actual classical-trained singer. In that manner, all the characters were very well thought of, some of them signified all that is evil within the society, some of them signified the irony of every society. For instance, the way the Transgender character’s responds provides a bit of wit and offers humor and satire, but that also represents the wicked trait of the society, the way the other characters treat the Transgender, that is exactly how the society treats them. So, in that manner, it also invites the viewer to self-reflect.

Some of the ironies did not hit like Shawn Michael’s finishing maneuver Sweet Chin Music, but were very subtle, and some were very obvious, the behaviorism in the Journalist’s character, there were some loopholes in that, but that also signified the beauty of it, in the way that the many actors handled all those beautifully-constructed ironies. In an exclusive word with TeamAEM, the director, Saad Farrukh Khan said “I wanted to feature young actors, and that is what I intend to do” upon asking what was the thought behind the play, he said “Yaar, on our first meeting, I decided that the play would be a comedy show. As it is convenient for the audience, and moreover, I wanted to introduce new actors, and not utilize only established actors. And I had a reason for the play to be loaded with caste, in order to introduce more actors. So, the setting was set, for the play, to be in a waiting lounge in an airport”.

Overall, the play offers highs, lows, humor, satire, drama, comedy, at times it gets a bit overwhelming, at times, it gets very interesting. But the play is worth it! What is more important is the fact that theatre is happening now, in our city, and is well received by the audience. Shout-out Eleven Productions, and to team Ultimate Signature Theatre, shout-out to the whole crew and particularly the actors, for providing with such good entertainment, for Airport – the play, shout-out Saad Farrukh Khan for standing up for thespians, for introducing aspiring and emerging actors before the world, and for not only making it commercial, but making it commercially successful!