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 ladies from the newly created Pakistan to India. Given the mood of the occasions, it’s a perilous journey.
Phrases like stress, hostility, concern, 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 received’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 inside 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 end result was the displacement of over 15 million individuals, and as every group struggled to get to the correct aspect of the border, there was widespread violence dedicated by each teams, leading to a mammoth massacre through which an estimated a million individuals misplaced their lives.
With this savagery got here the not so shocking 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 youngsters 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. In the course of 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).
In the course of the preventing, Alo’s sister Bani (Sehar Bhojani) was shot, so Alo is having to are likely to the injured lady, whereas attempting 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 scenario come two different girls and a toddler who’ve managed to bribe Kumar to allow them to on the truck. Every surprising, loud, terrifying bang on the door saying their presence, sends an electrical shock wave by means of the ladies. They’re paralyzed with concern as to who may be knocking.
The primary to come back is the closely pregnant Sonali (Zorana Sadiq) who needs to get to India to search out her husband who has disappeared. If something, she brings a breath of humour along 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’s yet another character, the marauding younger bandit whom Roy has sarcastically named Pretty (Mirza Sarhan). He’s frantic to search 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.
For sure, every new arrival has an affect 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 fingers tied, and the Hindus grouped across the injured Bani. Regardless of which ethnicity, nonetheless, the ladies are clearly traumatized.
The tense dialogue is at all times to the purpose because the dialog twists and turns in surprising methods. The play is generally constructed round small occasions, damaged up by the tightly wired Alo’s eruptions of anger.
The happenings might be summed up in short 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 kids discover one another, a lot to Pari’s dismay. Arun exhibits affection to Alo who raised her, and Alo can’t assist however reply. Once in a while, Bani groans in misery. The newcomers inform their tales and reply questions, and so it continues.
But, inside these seemingly easy happenings, Roy has inbuilt a miasma of tension and desperation that’s the throughline of the play. Panic lurks simply beneath the floor. The ladies know the brutal devastation that’s occurring exterior the truck, and that consciousness is at all times current.
Nonetheless, be warned. All shouldn’t be easy, and the playwright has launched some jarring surprises.
The ladies do band collectively when Pretty 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 along with her new function of chief, and the playwright/actor provides 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 forged, to say the least,
Issues
Doubtless, the forceful affect of Trident Moon seizes the watcher’s consideration. Nonetheless, the violent feelings embedded inside 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 rather more detailed.
As for Pretty, he strikes too abruptly from menace to weak point, and as end result his exit from the truck falls flat.
After which there’s the issue of what I name the improbables — these weird occurrences that defy actuality just like the treatment for Bani’s gunshot wound. If I spelled these out, they might be spoilers, but it surely does beg the query as to why Roy included them. Alas, they do introduce the thread of incredulity.
Lastly, there’s the ending, one other inconceivable, which looks as if 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 massive backdoors of the truck, with the inside indicated by a raised platform. Admittedly, the ensuing area, although cramped, is bigger than an precise truck, however wants should. Aquino devised motion for her forged that operates fantastically inside a confined area, 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 isn’t an empty truck.
Kang has additionally positioned an necessary image in the course 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 inside the truck and within the tumultuous, chaotic world exterior.
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’s 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’s additionally an occasional music impact that alerts the ladies to lose their stability as if the truck had been negotiating a pointy curve.
The ever present Ming Wong has long-established each saris and pantaloons for the ladies and the youngsters with every being subtly totally different. The costumes additionally mirror time spent in a grimy truck, giving the ladies a dishevelled and unkempt look. The usage of color differentiates the 2 teams, with the Hindus in what seems like pale yellow, and the Muslims in pale blue. The one actual flash of color is Munni’s pink marriage ceremony costume.
Epilogue
Most significantly, by means of dialog and storytelling, we decide up the truth that these girls have been victimized all through their whole lives, albeit in numerous methods.
For instance, Munni was being married off at ten. Then there’s Pretty, who humiliates the ladies with ease. We additionally hear a dreadful story about girls being ordered to leap right into a nicely.
Nonetheless, the main 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.
