Meera Syal Returns To An Epic Play Capturing The Trials And Tribulations Of The Mumbai City Slums
Playing @ National Theatre, London
Rate: 1,160 seats; £35, $110 top
Opened Nov. 19, 2014 – April 13, 2015
Running Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
It will be broadcasted to UK cinemas by National Theatre Live on March 12,2015.
Katherine Boo, the author of Behind The Beautiful Forevers spent three years of her life in Annawadi slums. The quaint and heart wrenching experiences there, led her to write the novel which now has been adapted as a play at London’s famous National Theatre. Adapted by David Hare and directed by Rufus Norris, this play is indeed one to go see.
"I wasn't trying to gather people around a table and talk to them," Boo shares about her book. "I was just going where they went. I was doing what they did, whether it was teaching kindergarten or stealing scrap metal at the airport or sorting garbage. And I would sit and listen and talk to them intermittently as they did their work."
While India is making its mark on the global economy, it is hard to overlook the hard-hitting reality that surrounds the luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport as the play focuses on a makeshift slum, which leads a vibrant, colourful existence.
Pic courtesy thesamueljohnsonprize
The main female protagonist, Zehrunisa Hussain is played by Meera Syal, and her son Abdul by Shane Zaza. Hussain is the matriarch of a hard-hitting family of trash pickers who aim to recycle enough rubbish to have the ability to own a proper house. Sunil (Hiran Abeysekera), at the tender age of twelve, aspires to become stronger and taller like Kalu who is also a thief by profession. Asha (Stephanie Street) wants to use the government’s anti-poverty funds so that she can become a person of high class status while her daughter, Manju (Anjana Vasan) and finally Fatima (Thusitha Jayasundera), who is the play’s darkest character – a one-legged woman who has an unusual sexual appetite and a strong temper adds more depth.
Asha Waghekar and Meera Syal on stage/whatsonstage
The play is hard-hitting, combining dark reality with humour. In addition, the play has an impressive supporting casting including Hiran Abeysekera, Esh Alladi, Nathalie Armin, Pal Aron, Tia-Lana Chinapyel, Vincent Ebrahim, Sartaj Garewal, Mariam Haque, Thusitha Jayasundera, Muzz Khan, Ranjit Krishnamma, Manjeet Mann, Nikita Mehta, Anjli Mohindra, Tia Palamathanan, Bharti Patel, Ronak Patani, Chook Sibtain, Anneika Rose, Gavi Singh Chera, Stephanie Street, Anjana Vasan, Assad Zaman and Shane Zaza.
Even though it is Abdul, an entrepreneurial Muslim teacher who illegally trades rubbish earns the status of the breadwinner of the family.
This play is unlike others because it has elements which are both Shakespearean in nature, with remnants of the drama we saw in Danny Boyle’s award-winning classic Slumdog Millionaire. Perhaps, the most memorable characters other than Zehrunisa is the presence of Fatima, who brings with her a sad reality which many women who lived in poverty experience in India. She is highly sensitive to any slight degradation.
The climax of the play occurs when a petty neighbourhood feud escalates out of control and she becomes a destructive entity not just to herself but to the Abdul and his family unleashing a slew of social and economic injustices, which becomes the first act of the play. In the second half, the viewers are exposed to the lawless and corrupt India which exists in the political and legislative infrastructure.
Video Courtesy of NewYorker
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