Crow’s Theatre & Nationwide Arts Centre/Trident Moon, written by Anusree Roy, directed by Nina Lee Aquino, Guloien Theatre, Streetcar Crowsnest, closes Mar. 30. Tickets right here.
Playwright Anusree Roy’s Trident Moon is a harrowing theatre expertise.
The setting is a rushing transport truck carrying a various group of girls from the newly created Pakistan to India. Given the mood of the instances, it’s a perilous journey.
Phrases like pressure, hostility, worry, anger, rage and battle barely scratch the floor in describing the volcanic core of the play.
The plight of those girls holds you in its grip and gained’t let go.
The Historic Background
The partition of India in 1947 was a results of Britain granting independence to the subcontinent. The Muslim faction, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, demanded their very own nation as a result of they feared being swallowed up throughout the huge Hindu majority. Thus, an arbitrary line was drawn to create two separate nations, trapping Hindus and different non-Muslims in Pakistan, and Muslims in India.
The consequence was the displacement of over 15 million individuals, and as every group struggled to get to the best aspect of the border, there was widespread violence dedicated by each teams, leading to a mammoth massacre wherein an estimated a million individuals misplaced their lives.
With this savagery got here the not so stunning sexual assault on girls. Roy’s title for the play says all of it. When a Hindu man raped a Muslim lady, he carved a trident on her wrist, whereas a Muslim rapist carved a crescent moon.
It’s from this horrible hazard that the ladies are making their escape.
The Characters
At first there are six girls and kids within the truck pushed by Alo’s brother-in-law Kumar (whom we by no means see), and who presumably is Bani’s husband.
The fiercely bitter Alo, (playwright Roy herself) is a Hindu who labored for a rich Muslim household. Throughout the sectarian violence, Alo’s husband and sons had been killed by the Muslim males of the home. In revenge, she has kidnapped her former girls employers — the outspoken Pari (Muhaddisah) and the silent Rabia (Imali Perera) — a second spouse? — together with Pari’s ten-year-old daughter Arun (Sahiba Arora).
Throughout the preventing, Alo’s sister Bani (Sehar Bhojani) was shot, so Alo is having to are likely to the injured lady, whereas making an attempt to maintain management of Bani’s mentally delayed, six-year-old daughter Heera (Prerna Nehta), to not point out the need of guarding her captives.
Alo’s vengeful aim is to take her three Muslim victims to India and hand them over to Hindu males who will carve tridents on their wrists.
Into this explosive state of affairs come two different girls and a toddler who’ve managed to bribe Kumar to allow them to on the truck. Every sudden, loud, terrifying bang on the door asserting their presence, sends an electrical shock wave via the ladies. They’re paralyzed with worry as to who could be knocking.
The primary to come back is the closely pregnant Sonali (Zorana Sadiq) who desires to get to India to seek out her husband who has disappeared. If something, she brings a breath of humour together with her nonstop chatter and eccentric observations on life.
The subsequent is the expansive, good-humoured Sumaiya (Afoza Banu) who claims to be the grandmother of the younger Munni (Mishelle Mohammed). Over time, this duo reveals some astonishing secrets and techniques.
There may be another character, the marauding younger bandit whom Roy has paradoxically named Beautiful (Mirza Sarhan). He’s frantic to seek out treasure within the truck as a result of these are his orders, and he’s afraid to come back again empty-handed. What he makes the ladies do and what he does to them is unspeakable.
Evidently, every new arrival has an impression on the already fraught dynamics permeating the truck.
The Drama
The journey has already begun because the play opens. The ladies have taken their locations within the truck — the Muslims along with their palms tied, and the Hindus grouped across the injured Bani. Irrespective of which ethnicity, nevertheless, the ladies are clearly traumatized.
The tense dialogue is all the time to the purpose because the dialog twists and turns in sudden methods. The play is generally constructed round small occasions, damaged up by the tightly wired Alo’s eruptions of anger.
The happenings will be summed up briefly descriptions.
Alo tells the Muslim girls why she has kidnapped them. Pari will get right into a shouting match with Alo. The Muslim girls scream for assist. The 2 youngsters discover one another, a lot to Pari’s dismay. Arun reveals affection to Alo who raised her, and Alo can’t assist however reply. Every now and then, Bani groans in misery. The newcomers inform their tales and reply questions, and so it continues.
But, inside these seemingly easy happenings, Roy has in-built a miasma of hysteria and desperation that’s the throughline of the play. Panic lurks simply beneath the floor. The ladies know the brutal devastation that’s occurring outdoors the truck, and that consciousness is all the time current.
Nonetheless, be warned. All shouldn’t be easy, and the playwright has launched some jarring surprises.
The ladies do band collectively when Beautiful assaults them. He’s the catalyst that triggers a burgeoning rapprochement between Alo and Pari.
Roy’s Alo dominates the play, a nervous, jumpy, mercurial lady who’s struggling together with her new function of chief, and the playwright/actor offers a completely magnificent efficiency.
One other standout is Sadiq’s chatterbox Sonali who sails alongside, detached to how the opposite girls react to her. Nothing ruffles her feathers.
Taken collectively, all ten actors make a formidable ensemble. It’s a very spectacular solid, to say the least,
Issues
No doubt, the forceful impression of Trident Moon seizes the watcher’s consideration. Nonetheless, the violent feelings embedded throughout the dramatic framework masks some shortcomings within the script.
We don’t know a lot concerning the preliminary 4 adults, however one thing feels skinny as a result of the characters of the later arrivals are way more detailed.
As for Beautiful, he strikes too abruptly from menace to weak point, and as consequence his exit from the truck falls flat.
After which there may be the issue of what I name the improbables — these weird occurrences that defy actuality just like the remedy for Bani’s gunshot wound. If I spelled these out, they might be spoilers, however it does beg the query as to why Roy included them. Alas, they do introduce the thread of incredulity.
Lastly, there may be the ending, one other unbelievable, which looks like too simple a manner out.
I do apologize for the vagaries.
The Manufacturing
Director Nina Lee Aquino has orchestrated a powerful choreographic sample for Jawon Kang’s claustrophobic set.
Behind the stage are the big backdoors of the truck, with the inside indicated by a raised platform. Admittedly, the ensuing house, although cramped, is bigger than an precise truck, however wants should. Aquino devised motion for her solid that operates superbly inside a confined house, their altering positions feeling each pure and plausible.
Designer Kang has additionally positioned bundles of garments and numerous containers across the stage to offer a way of actuality. Logically, these girls have taken some possessions with them. It’s not an empty truck.
Kang has additionally positioned an necessary image in the midst of the stage — a sharply jagged line evoking a streak of lightning. It’s the nice divide that separates the Hindus from the Muslims, each throughout the truck and within the tumultuous, chaotic world outdoors.
The passage of time is indicated by Michelle Ramsay’s intelligent lighting, which bathes the stillness of the ladies in muted darkness. Her lighting for the inside of the truck itself has a dingy veneer however there may be sufficient brightness to not hinder the motion.
Romeo Candido’s edgy Japanese-influenced music runs all through the play, mirroring the tensions inside. He has cleverly included the sounds of fixing gears and the roar of a revving engine. We additionally hear muted shouts and intermittent gun fireplace. There may be additionally an occasional music impact that alerts the ladies to lose their steadiness as if the truck had been negotiating a pointy curve.
The ever-present Ming Wong has common each saris and pantaloons for the ladies and the kids with every being subtly completely different. The costumes additionally mirror time spent in a dirty truck, giving the ladies a dishevelled and unkempt look. The usage of color differentiates the 2 teams, with the Hindus in what appears to be like like pale yellow, and the Muslims in pale blue. The one actual flash of color is Munni’s purple marriage ceremony costume.
Epilogue
Most significantly, via dialog and storytelling, we choose up the truth that these girls have been victimized all through their whole lives, albeit in several methods.
For instance, Munni was being married off at ten. Then there may be Beautiful, who humiliates the ladies with ease. We additionally hear a dreadful story about girls being ordered to leap right into a effectively.
Nonetheless, the foremost theme from playwright Roy is her need for us to acknowledge that her characters are resilient and in the end defiant. They’re survivors.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, significantly on the function of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson College for the Arts.
