Friday, 26 March 2010

venue: Various in UK

Rani Moorthy has been delighting and enlightening audiences in the UK with her incredible theatre performances and creations, over the years, and this is her newest work. An evocative and enchanting story of homecoming, adventure, fear and joy for a girl and her mother.

For the first time since she was a girl, Saheeda is returning to her family village for a wedding. She takes along her teenage daughter Nasreen who is intensely annoyed at being away from her friends in England. For Nasreen this is a place of mixed messages. A land that is part eulogized, but never fully spoken about. Where money is sent back to, but never visited. Where letters sent across the globe forge few bonds across the generations.

Back in the family home, Saheeda begins to connect with her past life, and stories of her time as a girl, both happy and sad are re-enacted. Nasreen discovers a life of her mothers that had never been revealed: running in the fields; trips to the sea; a grand imaginary feast at Ramadan; smoking her grandmother’s hookah…Then suddenly these happy times were shattered when Saheeda’s mother died and her father remarried. After cutting her stepmothers’ clothes to shreds, she was sent away to live with relatives, before eventually being married off to a man in England. A marriage doomed to fail.

As mother and daughter begin to share the family history, Saheeda, just like her own mother did to her, rubs henna into Nasreen’s hands to ward off evil spirits and nightmares. She tells her daughter how she created a secret garden in her mind to bury all her dreams. Once sarcastic and unbelieving, Nasreen now realises she must rub henna in her mothers hands. Whilst in England Nasreen complained that her mother did not understand her, now she realises that she had not tried to understand her mother, and knew nothing of the secrets and stories that shape her character.

As the wedding celebrations commence, a newfound understanding is forged between mother and daughter, and brash Nasreen shows she has sensitivity and compassion.

Directed by Karen Simpson, 1/2 Tamil actress, Nimmi Harasgama, from Sri Lanka performs with Bharti Patel, Rochi Rampal and Sohm Kaplia. Theatres like Watermans, Brentford, Broadway Barking, Rich Mis London, Artsdepot, North Finchley will all have performances.

The remaining few dates include:

 Royal Exchange Studio, Manchester

Friday 26th March, 7:30p

Saturday 27th March, 4pm and 8pm

    * 0161 833 9833

    * www.royalexchange.co.uk

    * £9.50 (£6.50/£4.75) U13s £4

Guildhall, Derby

Monday 29th March, 7:30pm

    * 01332 255800

    * www.derbylive.co.uk

    * £10 (£8)

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