LAHORE - Theatres in the provincial metropolis are rapidly losing attraction of viewers mainly because of vulgar and obscene dialogues, dance and lyrics of songs. A survey carried out by TheNation shows that the number of viewers has gone down by almost 50 per cent. During the visits by this scribe on Monday at various private theatres of the cultural hub, Lahore, maximum respondents were of the view that lack of censorship and monitoring on stage drama, were the real causes of declining of the theatre industry in the country. They said that mostly actors and producers of the commercial theatre were uneducated having no realisation of the needs of society. The audiences at different theatres including Mehfil, Alfalah and Tamaseel were also complained about the very high rates of tickets. During an urge to explore major reasons of failure to deliver the pure entertainment and infotainment by the commercial and non-commercial theatre industry, renowned theatre, film and TV actor Iftikhar Thakar said that after abolishment of censorship in Mushrraf regime, the theatre had adopted the current contours of vulgarity. He shared that only one theatre Alhamra out of nine, had some restrictions on performance and that was because the supervision of Lahore Arts Council. He said due to lack of policy and limitations and strong story, actors crossed their allocated role. He further said although theatre as a social institution, was delivering nothing but it could be a big source to educate the masses if the government took interest for its betterment. The producers should design the contents of drama according to needs of the society despite demands of the audiences, he added. On the question of scripting and story writing, Thakar commented that there was no true storywriter and revealed the other aspect that the writers were not paid. How can the producers find a strong script, he questioned and himself replied that in commercial theatre, professional approach was must. He said involvement of Arts Council in monitoring might be more effective than Home Ministry. A member of Chanan Theatre Group, a non-commercial theatre, Sana Sohail said parallel theatre was doing very well than commercial one, as it was providing edutainment. She said the people wanted not only entertainment but also information and education. She said the commercial theatre had none of the three qualities so the masses were reluctant to go there and waste their time. She said the state should involve in it and should set a regulatory body, which form a code of conduct for the theatre. Coordinator Punjab Lok Rahs theatre Qaisar Abbas said the encouragement to the mafias in Zia period was the basic reason behind destruction of the cultural intuitions including theatre, film and music. He said the theatre could revive only with the participation of educated youth in this field. He said with the training of audiences and improvement in their aesthetic sense, current practises in commercial theatre would be abolished.