Theatre of Pakistan

Theatre in Pakistan has been developed and influenced by the traditional and ritual Persian theatre as well as the classical Indian dance practices of the Mughal Empire. As an Islamic state, the production of plays and theatrical performances in the past was not condoned in the country for religious reasons that is why this performing art did not have the opportunity to develop and flourish. The concept of Pakistani theater as a national heritage could only be traced back to modern plays due to the absence of any classical theatrical tradition while folk literature has also been largely obscured except the performances of the Bhand.

With the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate that began in the 10th and 11th centuries, theatre was discouraged or forbidden entirely. Pakistan, like its Middle Eastern neighbors, did not condone the performing arts except the popular performances of comic dialogues that crudely displayed the female body. Later, however, in an attempt to re assert indigenous values and ideas, village theatre was encouraged across South Asia, developing in a large number of regional languages from the 15th to the 19th centuries. The history of theatre beginning this period coincided with and often mirrored the political developments in Pakistan. Theater groups, for instance, performed repertoires that depicted and challenged extremism as well as biased notions of nationalism, religion, and gender. The performance of the play Inder Sabha (The Heavenly Court of Indra) written by Agha Hasan Amanat in the court of the last Nawab of Oudh, Wajid Ali Shah in 1855, has been highly regarded as the beginning of Urdu theatre. There is a controversy with regards to whether Urdu theater was influenced by Western sources or mainly a product of Urdu's literary tradition. There are historians, for instance, who proposed that the style of Inder Sabha had elements that can be traced to the French, a position that Masud Hasan Rizvi rejected. This Indian author claimed that Urdu literature is patterned after ancient Sanskrit plays. Today, Pakistan has a growing theatre culture, and Urdu theater competes with English plays for dominance in the country's entertainment industry. The major competition with theatre is that represented by growing television industry and the spread of films produced in the Pakistani film industry based in Karachi and Lahore, known as "Lollywood". Lack of finance is another major obstacle.

In 1855, the enactment of the play Inder Sabha written by Agha Hasan Amanat in the court of the last Nawab of Oudh, Wajid Ali Shah, marked the beginning of Urdu theatre. The drama dealt with the love story between a fairy and a prince. The Nawab, who was a Kathak dancer and had written theses on stage techniques, composed some of the songs and choreographed the dances for the play. It was a huge success. Its characters (Sabaz Pari (Green Fairy), Kala Deo (Black Devil) and Lal Deo (Red Devil)) live on as a part of the vocabulary of South Asia.