While it’s a convenient time, of quick replies and constant conversation, the idea of scribbled pages from that special someone far, far away has a unequivocal charm.
And it’s this dying art — of handwritten letters on crisp pages of parchment — that’s being brought to the fore in the original Urdu play Mian Biwi aur Wagah (Husband, Wife and the Wagah Border), which runs at The Junction, Alserkal Avenue from August 11-12.
Based on a series of letters, the narrative takes on slice-of-life stories, wrapped in nostalgia and peppered with socio-political ingredients.
Mian and Biwi are a husband-wife duo while Wagah — a border crossing between India and Pakistan — turns narrator and takes a central position in the play. It symbolically dovetails through the cascade of letters.
These letters are inspired by true-life stories and experiences rooted in history, but contemporary in nature.
Dubai-based playwright Dhruti Shah D’souza, who has co-directed Mian Biwi aur Wagah, says, “Handwritten letters carry a sense of quaint longing and seamlessly merge into storytelling.” [Her co-director is award-winning producer/director Sheherzad Kaleem.]
Tickets for the show, held on August 11 and 12 at 7.30pm, are Dh100.