Review: JATINGA Exposes The Stories That The Rest Of The World Would Rather Ignore

Wednesday 21st MJune 2017, 7:30pm Kings Cross Theatre

Purva Naresh's new play, JATINGA, shares a heartbreaking side of India that the rest of the world has tried to ignore. In its world premiere, this 80 minute play delves into the stories of India's forgotten girls, based on Naresh's personal experience with girls she met in the Kamathipura region of India.

The work centres around Jatinga, a real village on a ridge in Assam India where, according to the local myths, birds come to commit suicide. The tail end of the monsoon season attracts birds that are disoriented by the changing winds in an event that has become a lucrative tourist attraction which tour guide Mihima (Monroe Reimers) tries to exploit. Reporter Madhumita (Suz Mawer) has been sent to file a wildlife report on the phenomena because it will have great images but she believes that there are more important stories that should be covered. Travelling to Jatinga by train, Madhumita comes across another stories that she believes are more important as she meets five stowaways. Champa (Thrishala Sharma), is a young girl who's dreams of playing hockey don't alight with her parents intentions for an arranged marriage. Sisters and orphans Manda (Faezeh Jaliali), Nandi (Sheila Kumar) and Chutki (Teresa Tate Britten) have been tending their father's farm on barren, apparently cursed land. Bindiya (Karina Bracken) struggles to find work as a typist in a world of computer. Through the girls' stories, along with Madhumita's own experiences, the audience is given a glimpse into a world that modern India, and the rest of the world, would rather forget and dismiss as myths and legends.

Suzanne Millar and John Harrison's set takes the audience into the slums of Mumbai, with corrugated iron shanty homes and rows of washing lines covering the courtyards littered with rubbish. Millar's costuming is in keeping with the local dress for the girls with more modern, westernised attire for the middle classes. A common scarf helps link the three sisters and costume changes help identify the supporting characters which are portrayed by the ensemble.

It is wonderful that Naresh is putting women's stories on stage and showing the world a story from a region whose stories are not often told in western theatres. Drawing on the audience's imagination, flocks of birds are implied by a sweeping dance and Champa's hockey games are well choreographed to capture the energy and excitement. Benjamin Brockman's lighting helps transport the audience between the various locations in the flexible timeline, from the hockey fields, the Jatinga ridge and the train ride, all implied by the lighting combined with the text and direction.

Whilst Suz Mawer's Madhumita is educated and well travelled, Mawer ensures that the reporter remains real and compassionate as she deals with the 5 girls. Jalali, Kumar and Tate Britten come together to express their despair at inheriting a cursed land whilst capturing their youthfulness, with a particularly engaging performance of youngest sister Chutki. Bracken captures Bindiya's feelings of inadequacy as she is taken around town with her father, looking for typing work and finally believing her inability to work is an unnecessary burden on the family. Sharma presents Champa as gutsy and bold, wonderfully contrasting it with the fear she feels when she finds herself in Mumbai's red light district. The additional characters are naturally kept more two dimensional but still infuse the roles with an intriguing depth.

JATINGA is a thought provoking work that raises the awareness that there many issues facing young women, in this case India, that needs to be exposed. It moves between comic and playful to serious and challenging topics that include child brides, prostitution, arranged marriages, and domestic violence while corporate greed and society's complacency has resulted in these issues being ignored.

JATINGA