An intense yet bewilderingly bloated show of narrated memories leaves much to be desired in this adaptation from Kavita Puri’s acclaimed book of Partition testimonies.
Silence is the latest incarnation (after a radio series and a book) of a ground-breaking project by Kavita Puri to catalogue actual lived experiences of British Asians following the 70th anniversary since the Partition of India – an historical moment when the British Raj came to an end, but not before carving a country into two and creating a new country out of it, leaving a carnage of emotional wounds, communal segregation, displacement and unresolved trauma in its wake. Adapted by a train of writers (Sonali Bhattacharyya, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Ishy Din, Alexandra Wood), this avatar of the book somehow manages to turn an intensely harrowing history into an unsatisfying series of repetitive (occasionally improv-esque) dramatic portraits that seem only to perpetuate cliched stories, loosing much of their latent potency and force.
Most of the narrations remain soliloquies and feel didactic in places: a Sikh recounting his perplexity of friends turning enemies overnight; a Hindu reconciling his past hatred towards Muslims; a Sindhi couple who remain committed to preserving their culture; an inter-religious couple emphasising the importance of understanding their roots for the sake of their children; and, oddly, a colourblind casting decision of actor Asif Khan standing in for a white person reminiscing his ayah and the Raj – that one did confuse! Yet there are some effective elements, in particular the docu-styled projections by Rachana Jadav & Simeon Miller and Beth Duke’s lilting sound design interspersing the scenes.
The central conceit of the show is the silence of the survivors of Partition, yet the creative decision to keep the disjointed narratives as just that on stage, is perhaps the biggest irony of the piece: the whole show is a presentation of those very suppressed stories. Once a decision is made to frame complex history in a verbatim-esque style, there’s little else director Iqbal Khan could’ve done with it – even after a second staging following the late Abdul Shayek’s initial iteration. “Soil is more important than religion”, says one of the ensembles characters, but the history of Partition (as we are informed by the narrations) hinges entirely on the religious divides – the supposed reason why Partition was necessary before the British left. These are just two of the paradoxes at the heart of the show; but perhaps this is one of the everlasting legacies of the Partition itself: a cacophony of unresolved stories, memories and many questions.
Check out more from HOME Manchester| Find out more about Tara Theatre| Iqbal Khan | Sonali Bhattacharyya | Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti | Kavita Puri
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