Mimes And Dramas

By Staff Reporter, *Spiritual quackery — recurring theme at GCU arts festival* - Daily Times - Lahore, Pakistan; Saturday, April 2, 2011

Spiritual quacks were highlighted as one of the biggest sources of social evils in our society at the Performing Arts Festival organised by the Government College University’s (GCU) Psychology Department on Friday.

As many as 16 universities and colleges took part in the festival and staged mimes and dramas on the themes of “Sufism”, “Religion and psychology” and “Human nature”. The plots of most of the mimes and dramas revolved around the spiritual quacks and the negative role they play in creating paranoia in the minds of people through tactics like fortunetelling.

The opening play of the festival was presented by the Punjab University (PU) Institute for Art and Culture, that portrayed how the so-called spiritual healers in our society misguide people even on religious issues and destroy families for money.

The play presented by the students of Kinnaird College for Women won the first prize.

The story was of a girl who suffered from a psychological problem but her mother-in-law, instead of consulting a doctor or a psychologist, took her to a spiritual quack. The play portrayed the blind faith some women in our society have on these “immoral and characterless cheaters”.

The GCU Psychology Department presented a mime in which four different traditions, including “Heer Waris Shah” and “Whirling Derwasih and Dhamal”, were staged.

The GCU students also presented a drama “Sayan Aur Psychiatrist”, written by the late eminent writer Ashfaq Ahmed. The play underlined the spiritual and social problems of our society. The Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Rawalpindi, students staged a play on the topic of “nationalism”, in which they highlighted the invaluable love of cadets for their country.

The PU Department of Psychology also presented a play on “childhood trauma and its effects on later life”.

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[Picture: Government College Celestial Gothic building, India, 1880. Photo: British Library, Wiki]