A REVIEW BY ZAINEB HASHMI
Curtains open!
A lady is seen sitting motionless on a sofa. Her grief can be felt in the audience. As the spotlight finds her, one can clearly see her trembling with agony. Her hands, oh yes,her hands! She can’t keep them still. Her face carries the expressions of a woman in immense pain and anxiety. She starts off by telling us what actually LORILEI is. While she speaks, it seems as if she’s not here with us but a land far far away where Lorilei supposedly resides.
Returning to us, her voice trembles as she communicates about the whole incident leading to her son’s tragic murder. Just by looking at her face, you can see all types of hells she has been for the last twenty years. For a moment, I thought that the lady elegantly presenting her dilemma onstage is Lorilei Guillory herself.
But Oh wait! No. That’s our very own Sania Saeed. Well, this didn’t come as a surprise as we all know that Sania Saeed is capable of getting into the character and living it. This was the Urdu version of the play performed by Sania Saeed. Displaying her amazing acting skills, perfect dialogue delivery with accurate pronunciation of difficult terminologies in Urdu and of course, giving us the exact expressions that a mother who went through all the hardships of a son’s murder would have imprinted across her face.
Same goes for English version of the play, performed by Nimra Bucha. Her excellent dialogue delivery and authentic accent led us to believe that the person we are seeing infront of us might actually be the real LORILEI. Grief imprinted on her face, she narrated all the tragic events led to the attainment of strength that led Lorilei to speak against the death penalty given to Rick Langley, murderer of her child. How does one gather the strength to do so? What factors could have possibly led her to make such a decision? For that my dear readers, you will have to watch the play yourself.
Both of the ladies in the main roles have done an admirable job by displaying a convincing act. One can easily witness Lorilei’s suffering in the form of the exact expressions seen on Sania Saeed’s and Nimra Bucha’s faces. They only not surprised us with their brilliant acting skills; the play is directed by the duo as well. And we all can see how well that went, can’t we?
The play LORILEI is written originally by Thomas Wright.
The production company OLOMOPOLO theater have done an outstanding job in making this come into the form that people of Lahore & Islamabad enjoyed and people of Karachi are currently appreciating. Brilliant light production and the set depict the hard work behind this play.
And the best part! They ask the opinion from the audience regarding the main issue discussed in this play. Death penalty is a major issue discussed these days all over. JUSTICE PROJECT PAKISTAN is an organization working on the matter and this play is one of the attempts to raise awareness.
This play is based on the true story of a mother, LORILEI GUILLORY, whose 6 year old son, Jeremy, was murdered in 1992 by a pedophile, Ricky Langley. The play illustrates an emotional journey of Lorilei, at the end of which she at last gathers the strength to speak against Langley’s death penalty. Through her own addictions and experiences relating to it, she understands the condition of Ricky Langley and gives her opinion that she considers it wrong to execute such a man.
If you haven’t watched this play yet, I must advise you book your tickets as soon as possible!
Karachiites! DO NOT MISS THIS MARVELOUS PIECE OF ART!
