Touring Scotland in the company of the cast of Man Mela's Cornershop
I travelled to Glasgow to see the performance of the Cornershop at a Church Theatre (aren't there loads of them?). A small but very much full of character venue with the large stained glass windows and exposed beam ceilings (what else did you expect in the church?). I was asked to make my way to this church on Partickhall Road. I must have come across at least five other churches in the vicinity of the one I was suposed to be at, not making the task of finding the place any easier. So many beautiful churches throughout Scotland, though!.
Before I digress into talking about the church architecture in Scotland, I must say this effort in finding the venue was repaid many times over after seeing the performance.
The performance is a collection of three plays by three different playwrights, incidentally all the plays are the first writings of each of the writers. The production team has come up with this idea of issue based plays which adds significant value to this entertainment filled evening alongside some very pertinent issues being raised through the plays.
The first play is called Wish by Ravi Mangat. A young lad, Satnam, who does not want his father to sell the shop where he has such strong memories of his childhood. This is the place where he took his first steps, this is the place where he would have to clean the floor after having dirtied it with his soiled shoes after football practice, this is the place where his mum would feed him and his best mate Vikram her home-made samosas after they returned from school. The father wants the son to find another occupation as he feels that the cornershop would not last forever, whereas the son believes that his heart and soul reside in this shop and that all his strengths would go away and be wasted if he did not continue to work in the shop. He says "A wish is the hardest thing to achieve since we so strongly believe that it cannot come true."
The second play is called Jeevan Sathi (Life Partner) written by Ashok Patel. This deals with a tabbo subject of Gay & Lesbians in the context of a Hindu family. Here again a father, who has just returned from a visit to India to offer his dead wife's ashes to the Ganges in Varanasi, comes home to the news that his daughter Meena's Jeevan Saathi is her girl friend Shiela - a mixed race individual referred to by Nathu as 'half-caste', who the family have known as her best friend for years. Meena's uncle Nathu cannot let his niece be influenced by this 'half caste' and takes all steps necessary to rid Meena of Shiela's company. In his 'duty' to protect his niece and the honour of the family Nathu is so enraged and turns so violent that his own brother disapproves his actions. Meena is now divided between her love for Shiela and her duty to the family which has 'done everything' for her.
The third play titled Resham (Silk) is about the honour killings so prevalent in the orthodox muslim communities in many parts of the world. A young muslim girl who has tried to become more western - only because she went to a sixth form college, then university and then enters the profession of an Air Hostess ('aeroplane prostitutes' to her grand father). She is not allowed to keep the child she is pregnant with. This is because she is not married and 'more importantly' the child is with a black christian man. The social aspects of such a scenario in the muslim community and the reactions of the various family members and friends is the main theme of the play. It is all portrayed so well and with such sincerety and humour that it is sheer joy watching the trio of plays.
If you have not watched any Asian theatre before, go and see this one and I assure you that you will become addicted. The five actors who play all the characters in this performance excel in every field, despite a long 2 1/2 hour session on stage. I hope that all Asian theatre can rise to the standards set by these performances.
I moved on with the company to their performance in Edinburgh two days later. The crowds were a good mix of asian and native communities, with a 70%/30% split, respectively. The audience loved the performance and had a mixture of emotions on their faces and you could not find a single person who was not moved by the production and the acting talents on display.
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