Hands off Uncle Sam

Toni Usman used Manto’s letters as inspiration and Manto’s grave as symbol to stage a strong and communicative expression

Toni Usman is an intelligent and extremely gifted artist who has worked as stage and TV artist in Norway for the last two decades. He has earned lot of respect for his performances. He has greatly contributed to introduce Norwegian society’s multiculturalist face through his presentations. He has twice chosen Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto to signify humanity and universal message of co-existence. He staged Toba Tek Singh in 1998 based on Manto’s remarkable short story with the same title. Now he has successfully presented another stage play “Uncle Sam” based on Manto’s ‘Letters to Uncle Sam’. The play had its opening at Oslo’s Literature House On November 25. The play is directed by Pål Øverland, scenography is by Frans Friis, manuscript is scripted by Kristian Lykkeslet Strømskag and Toni Usman himself plays the solo role. He has also produced and assisted in developing the concept and the script.

Manto wrote nine letters from 1951-53 to ‘Uncle Sam’ as his Pakistani ‘nephew’. These letters reflect consequences of super power politics spreading uncertainty and insecurity in the country. Manto’s humour and insightfulness reflects well even our age. Toni Usman used these letters as inspiration and Manto’s grave as symbol to stage a strong and communicative stage play. It takes the audience to broader and in depth understanding of world’s volatile and aggravated security situation. The theatre depicts role of American policymakers in the world affairs and how those policies and decisions have affected people around the world.

Kristian Lykkeslet Strømskag has very cleverly scripted the concept furthering original message of Manto about American policies of hegemony and oppression in developing countries. It is hard to deconstruct texts written half a century ago in an alien language and encapsulate new realities into it without damaging the basic theme. Toni Usman co-operated with Strømskag and also translated original letters for the purpose of providing basis for the script development. They earn big thanks for this inspiring and reflective creation.

The play opens with Farooq (played by Toni Usman). Farooq is a Manto-fan and a Norwegian-Pakistani. He packs his bags to move to Pakistan and during the first leg of his journey, he visits Manto’s grave at Miani Sahib Graveyard in Lahore. Many questions haunt him as he arrives at the grave of a great writer. For instance, he is wondering why the world is the way it is? What does life mean? What is national identity and why we get so obsessed with it? Is it his birth that makes him a Pakistani, Indian, Norwegian or his character defines his identity? The reflective question he asks is: how long one should be Norwegian-Pakistani before s/he is qualified to be a Norwegian? Why the USA should decide how all others should live their lives? To find the answers, he visits grave of his favourite writer and wonders if the writer who lived a miserable life, suffered at the hands of his co-countrymen but delivered best fiction and manuscripts and died at a very young age could help him find the answers.

To find answers, Farooq searches through Manto’s letters.The first letter of Manto to Uncle Sam was written on the demand of American information service in Pakistan. The letter starts with these words; “My name is Saadat Hasan Manto and I was born in a place that is now in India … My country now is Pakistan which I had only seen five or six times before as a British subject. I used to be all India’s Great Short Story Writer. Now I am Pakistan’s Great Short Story Writer. Several collections of my stories have been published and the people respect me. In undivided India I was tried thrice, in Pakistan so far just once. But then Pakistan is still young ….”

In his second letter Manto in his specific sarcastic way writes: “This gentleman who asked me for the story wanted to know how much I would charge for it. Uncle, it is possible that you lie and you actually do — having turned it into an art — but I do not know how to. That day however I did lie. “I will charge two hundred rupees for my story”. The truth is that most publishers here pay me forty or fifty rupees a story”.

Strømskag builds the concept further and Farooq counts that Manto wrote nine letters and agreed price was 300 rupees per letter but he never received 2700 rupees that US information service owed him for these letters.

Farooq through these letters takes the spectators to the aspects of power politics, ‘war on terror’ and how Americans created Jihadists and now are exhausted to get rid of them. Play is spread little over than an hour and is based only on one character but keeps viewers engaged and involved through the whole show.

The play concludes as Farooq tells Uncle Sam:”For 64 years you have played war games and politics in our homeland. Now is the time that you stop telling us what to do and take care of yourself, play with yourself and mind your own business”.

Toni has wonderfully played the character of Farooq. The script that adds to Manto’s original concept helps the audience to see the broader picture in today’s perspective. It is an interesting and meaningful cultural endeavour that is like a fresh air to Norwegian cultural reflections on stage.