Review: DIVINE MASCULINE: A RHAPSODY at Théâtre De La Nouvelle Scène during Ottawa Fringe

For my first show of the 2025 Ottawa Fringe Festival, I chose Divine Masculine: A Rhapsody at Theatre de la Nouvelle Scène. Written and directed by Navneel Agnihotri and presented by Agni Creative, The synopsis sounded intriguing: “With a soundtrack ranging from Kendrick Lamar to Bollywood classics, this story of two couples explores the social construction of masculinity, cultural and racial fetishism, and the bridges and barriers we build in expressing love.”

I was curious how the creators would tackle all these themes within a sixty-minute fringe time slot. The story opens during Kartikey’s (Navneel Agnihotri) adolescence, where they feel insecure and uncomfortable in their skin, captive within a patriarchal family suffering from physical and emotional abuse. The balance of the play takes place over many years and centres around Kartikey’s friendship with Tayo (Aurel Pressat Irigukunze) and their complicated relationships with two women, Shanti (Raina Barara) and Elizabeth (Anna Malanga). All the themes set out in the synopsis are present but because there is not enough time to flush out the themes or the characters, the narrative becomes disjointed, and the events as well as the timeline are difficult to follow. The content notes refer to a character being groomed; however, this is not evident until one of the characters confronts someone with the explicit accusation.

The show is in English but is interspersed with snippets of French and Punjabi; however, audiences do not need knowledge of those languages to follow the story. I enjoy experiencing multilingual plays because it adds a level of authenticity to the characters.

There are many important themes hinted at throughout the show, but by the end, it is not clear what the creatives wanted Divine Masculine’s overall message to be. The cast and creative team are clearly passionate, and the play has potential but is perhaps overly ambitious for a Fringe show. With some more development and a longer run time, Divine Masculine can expand on the story and its characters to create a show that will resonate with a diverse audience.

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