Kali Theatre

Photo credit: Jerome Hunt and The Guardian.

We thoroughly enjoyed Satinder Chohan's 'Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi' (directed by Helena Bell) exploring the issues of national identity and belonging through the 1936 Olympics right up 2012 London. What better than using sports to illustrate it? The play stirred up a curiosity about Kali Theatre's other productions. Kali Theatre is currently the only theatre company in the UK dedicated to producing new writing by South Asian women. (Read more here.)

Was also half-dragged to the readings of Kali Theatre's Talkback 2012 Readings for 'Song For A Sanctuary' written by Rukhsana Ahmad (directed by Aileen Gonsalves), and double bill, 'Speed' by Iman Qureshi (directed by Poonam Brah) and 'I Killed My Best Friend's Father' by Sushma Joshi.

I said half-dragged because these were readings and not the plays. While I was curious, I wasn't sure if I'd be comfortable attending. Without watching the plays, how was I to make sense of the readings? I wouldn't want to be that dodo member of the audience going huh at every juncture. But the bff, who's familiar with the plays and writers, gave me a detailed lecture, ending with "Imagine!" 

I'm not attending the rest of the readings that are going to be previews of works under Kali's Writer Development Programme. So these readings I've attended are of plays already put on stage. There isn't an issue of copyright or controversy over these unfinished works. With the bff beside me, I was more assured that I could seek clarity on the issues presented, and the sessions allowed an insight into the writer's psyche and the decision of the producers of how the plays would eventually pan out from script to stage.

I won't go into details of the discussion. If you google, you'll be able to suss out the summary and themes of these plays that deal with diasporic cultural identities, gendered violence, migrant communities, war and conflict, inter and intra racial tensions, the notion of the female and femininity, et cetera. Suffice to say that these discussions weren't light-hearted. Defintely thought-provoking. Witty, of course.