‘Mayat’ introduces a setting which might seem absurd to the rational mind as the script is packed with much innuendos and underlying meanings, therefore motivating us to analyse and try comprehending the deeper intended meanings of the script. Our search will fail because the drama follows and explains only one channel, which are, the obvious meanings. Our intentions of prying the sensitivity and absurdness that we try to relate to this play will not work, and in fact will only sway us to disappointment.
However, the absurd setting that is obvious in ‘Mayat’ is still to be observed. The setting referred to is represented by the space that surrounds the play. ‘Mayat’s’ strength in shaping the emptiness of space, is also one of the elements that forms the traditions of absurd theatre, as immortalized by Samuel Beckett in the play 'Waiting for Godot'.
‘Mayat’ has some specific intentions that can be manifested by the rational mind. This is via its presentation of the four friends, set in a cool morning, outside a dilapidated house planted in slums. The era is kept ambiguous in the play, though there are hints that allow us to place the characters in a period sometime in future.
In ‘Mayat’, Hatta Azad Khan highlighted the issue on scarcity of land and its consequences. He painted a cold, gloomy and eccentric future. The scarcity of land to entomb the body of their dead friend became the root of the conflict that centres the four friends, and it is this conflict that explains the behaviour of these friends in the play. Other factors also influence their behaviours. Following the explanation by an outsider who wishes to buy the dead body, he tries convincing the friends by stating that he needs the body parts to help sick people who are alive, instead of allowing those body parts to simply rot and disintegrate. He mentioned that it was more difficult to purchase dead bodies in the past due to the rampant availability of land and due to the selfishness of friends or relatives who refuses to sell dead bodies to him. Now that there is scarcity of land, it is easier for him to ‘help’ sick people in need. Two contradictory issues hence erupt.
One is the ease of attaining dead bodies now due to the scarcity of land, as compared to the difficulty in the past due to much availabilty of land and reluctance of friends and relatives to sell dead bodies. The ‘selfishness’ of friends and relatives in the past is attributed to the respect shown to the dead body. On the contrary, the present observes friends who regard a friend’s death as a blessing.
The play is differentiated by two opposing tones. Firstly, a naturalistic tone illustrates the characters that are based and influenced by situations and their backgrounds. Secondly, an ethics tone that are founded by moral values.
The naturalistic setting is created through characterizing humans in the play ‘Mayat’. The friends are nameless, as if they are identity-less, without an own personality to differentiate each of them, hence it can also emphasizes the same situations that they are experiencing. Creating characters that are not differentiated through personalities is a deliberate method. They are not constrained by the protocols of a label as they sometimes change their attitude and articulate another person’s dialogue.
Catch MAYAT from 28 - 29 Mar 2008 @ Teater Kami Blackbox Studio.
Call 67338969/93364085/ 90123342 for bookings or inquiries! 
