NAPA INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL

CHARING CROSS by AJOKA THEATRE

Directed by Shahid Nadeem

 

Famous for venue of historic rallies, eventful corner meetings, impressive sit-ins, candle-lit vigils and anti-government protest for decades, Lahore’s historic Charing Cross is situated in the middle of the eight kilometre long Mall Road and is just meters away from the 1935 Punjab Assembly Building, the 1914 Shahdin Building, the Lahore Zoo, the Punjab Chief Minister’s office (housed in the 1914 Masonic Hall which was closed in 1972 by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto).

A grand statue of Queen Victoria had also stood at the Charing Cross once, but it was shifted to the Lahore Museum in the 1970s and replaced by a wooden model of the Holy Quran. The statue was cast in London in 1900, just a year before the legendary British monarch’s death in 1901. Charing Cross was a place where the fashionable and the rich moved about, and it still continues to be a happening place in the city.

 

According to historians, Lahore’s Charing Cross shares its name with the Charing Cross in London, which is situated just south of the Trafalgar Square. A village by the name of “Charing” is also located near River Thames in London. 

 

CAST:

Naseem Abbas: Hara Sain

Mehreen Alam: Miss Malka

Sibte-Hassan: Asim

Hina Tariq: Almas

Usman Raaj: Shehbaz

Qaiser Khan: Khokhar

Muzamil Shabir: Jumma Masih

Nabeel Butt: DSP/SP Halaku

Kanwal Khan: Begum

Fahad Ali: Zoo Keeper

Ajlal Bukhari: Shair

Muneeba Abdullah: Queen’s Statue

Luke,Suneel, Kashif. Asad & Ali: Chorus/ Dancers