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 dashing transport truck carrying a various group of ladies 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 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 during which 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. Through the sectarian violence, Alo’s husband and sons have 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).
Through 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 objective 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 baby 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 by way of the ladies. They’re paralyzed with worry as to who is likely to be knocking.
The primary to return is the closely pregnant Sonali (Zorana Sadiq) who needs 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 yet one more character, the marauding younger bandit whom Roy has satirically 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 return again empty-handed. What he makes the ladies do and what he does to them is unspeakable.
Evidently, every new arrival has an influence 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 sudden methods. The play is usually constructed round small occasions, damaged up by the tightly wired Alo’s eruptions of anger.
The happenings could 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 reveals affection to Alo who raised her, and Alo can’t assist however reply. On occasion, 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 taking place exterior the truck, and that consciousness is at all times current.
Nevertheless, be warned. All just isn’t 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 position of chief, and the playwright/actor provides a fully 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
Doubtless, the forceful influence 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 way more detailed.
As for Beautiful, he strikes too abruptly from menace to weak spot, 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 remedy for Bani’s gunshot wound. If I spelled these out, they’d be spoilers, nevertheless it 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 straightforward a approach 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 solid that operates fantastically inside a confined area, their altering positions feeling each pure and plausible.
Designer Kang has additionally positioned bundles of garments and varied packing 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 vital 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 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 impede 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 hearth. There may be additionally an occasional music impact that alerts the ladies to lose their stability as if the truck have been negotiating a pointy curve.
The ever present Ming Wong has common each saris and pantaloons for the ladies and the youngsters with every being subtly completely different. The costumes additionally mirror time spent in a grimy truck, giving the ladies a dishevelled and unkempt look. Using 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 crimson marriage ceremony gown.
Epilogue
Most significantly, by way of dialog and storytelling, we decide up the truth that these girls have been victimized all through their total lives, albeit in numerous methods.
For instance, Munni was being married off at ten. Then there’s Beautiful, who humiliates the ladies with ease. We additionally hear a dreadful story about girls being ordered to leap right into a properly.
Nevertheless, the foremost theme from playwright Roy is her want 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 varied cultural teams and universities, significantly on the position 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.
