NO MAN'S LAND: PRESENTED BY EPIC ACTOR'S WORKSHOP IN NJ

 NO MAN'S LAND

REVIEW by BINA SHARIF 

A STAGE PLAY: Based on a short story by Mojaffer Hossain and adapted for the stage by Golam Sarwar Harun.  Shamita Das- Dasgupta is the script adviser. The play is in Bengali with English supertitles. The play is part of the 15th South Asian Theater Festival staged in new Brunswick Performing Arts Center.

NO MAN'S LAND (Also the title of one of Harold Pinter's amazing show) is about a nameless, disabled, abandoned and presumably a homeless woman ( Brilliant, Gargi Mukherjee ) who one day suddenly appear laying on an isolated rock in the middle of a desolate area called, No Man's Land between the borders of India and Bangladesh without a soul in sight to help this un-fortunate woman and all of a sudden the soldiers from both sides appear in a furious state and start to fight with each other.

They bicker, curse and insult each other,  involved in their own age old bureaucracy and apathy without ever showing an ounce of concern for the poor woman who is lying outdoors, a victim of nature's forces such as heat and cold and thunderstorms and hunger. There is absolutely no caring or concern for the

nameless woman struggling with the elements, fighting for life without an ounce of humanity shown by

any one of them.  Eventually the media shows up, there are Ngo's who are there in the name of human rights but actually only have concerens of their own. The play is about humanity's indifference and callousness towards the destitute who are eventually completely ignored and finally forgotten.

One wonder after being a witness to all the atrocities piled up on certain human beings as if they were wounded animals who howel and howel for attention,  for pity,  for help but are totally ignored as if they are completely invisible. Everyone who is present in that No Man's Land,  who ever comes to watch the tragedy made into a spectacle has complete lack of concern for the un-fortunate and forgotten woman.

It seems like their collective humanity for the downtrodden and so called, unimportant people is imprisoned behind bars never to be released again.

In one of the most stunning scene in the play, a raging storm with fury descends upon the woman and everyone else. Storm is a combination of thunder, rain and hails pouring down from heaven and the scene is staged with incredible imagination and craft with amazing lighting by(Sunanda Mitra) and brilliand actors who with lengthy and light blue  colored fabrics make the rivers rise creating the most dangerous flood which brings the ultimate tragedy. When the storm is showing it's signs of ultimate rage and destruction, a young girl dressed in beutifuly bright red color with gold rim in her native clothes (Beutiful Roopkatha) representing life, light and hope and she is the only one of the whole crowd who pleads with her mother for the abandoned woman's safety. She wants her mother to take her away from the rock and inside their home for safety. The little girl is so aware and sensitive about the ultimate tragedy of a human life if she is not removed from the dangerously roaring thunder storm. This scene is so touching, so moving and so sadly demanding help but still no one pays attention. It's heart breaking.

The situation of political and social fall out in that part of the world is not new. Its Centuries old story

of conflict, wars, in-humanity,  hunger,  poverty,  indifference and colonialism and it's unfair divisions

and random borders, a source of permanent battle making the suffereing of ordinary human beings

 unbearable.

I loved this production. Its wonderfully staged, brilliantly lit and barvely acted. The whole ensemble

is great and some  are excellent such as Sajal Mukherjii, Golam Sarwar Harun (In three roles who adapted the story, acted in it and did a great job as the co-director) Gargi Mukherjee who is superb as the

abondoned woman on the rock and also plays multiple roles and her grief as the nameless, sick woman is heart piercing. She has Madea like quality, a wonderful actor and also the co-director. The most brilliant and so touching and sensitive is the young star in the making, Rupkatha Datta who feels the pain of the woman and wants to take her home, make her warm, feed her and take care of her. I just adored her presence in the show. I just wish that I could speak Bengali so I could get all the delicate references in the show but English supertitles did help.

This production will not be so superb without the original score by Birsa Mukherjee Chatterjee. It's so melodious and haunting. It goes deep into your soul and you hear it constanly long after the show is over.

This Epic Actor's Workshop chaired by Dipan Ray has always interested me a great deal in the past.

I have attended the Asian Theater Festival a few times and I have never been disappointed. It's very diverse, with theater groups from India, Bangladesh, United States participating and the audience is the biggest Asian theater goers in their most festive clothes and jewellery,  just to be with them is a source of joy and brightness.

All actors have done a superb job  and the crew is very talented. I love the set as well by Prapaditya Mulick, Jayanta Majumdar and Saumitra Bagchi.  Perfect set for this kind of a play, minimal and hugely effective.

Visuals in this production gets the highest marks and the sound projection, by Ameeya Mehta and Arindam Shome is excellent. Supertitles are by, Prabir Mitra and Ujjal Mukherjee are helpful, but they move too fast for some one like me who doesn't speak Bengali.

Bravo to the whole company, cast, crew, and extremely energetic chair person Dipan Ray who year after year has given us such gems especially the the rare and precious Asian gems in the theater in the USA.

Bina Sharif: Editor/Publisher: artsinternational.blogspot.com

ATCA (Member of American Theater Critics Association)

email:binashariff@gmail.com

Mobile; 212-260-6207

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KIKI & HERB SLEIGH AT BAM.

                                              KIKI & HERB SLEIGH AT BAM

               

Kiki & Herb by Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman is back and it's a roaring 2 hours of songs, music, anecdotes and comedy performed with great joy, enormous energy and plenty of booze and the show is a non stop amazingly hillarious teller of stories in the most enjoyable manner.

These two characters, Kiki &Herb are beloved by fans of Bond and Mellman all over the world. They stopped performing for almost a decade and now are back delighting their followers who never forgot them and are thrilled to have them back. The enormous energy is not only on stage but in the audience who are riveted at every turn, every song and every gesture made by Kiki and Herb during the entire evening.

Not a dull moment from the beginning to the end.  When Mr. Mellman walked in with his glittering jacket and take a seat at the piano singing lyrics of Billy Joel's "Miami 2017 (Seen the lights Go Out on Broadway) and then Kiki, the singer enters and the howls of excitement welcome her. She sings with a meldious voice, move around on stage like a wounded tigress and sings and drink her heart out.

In between the singing Kiki sits on a high chair, have a table next to her with a bucket full of ice and a big bottle of booze of some kind and tell us amazingly funny  stories about the birth of Jesus Christ, how as a child she was taken to an institution where she meets an other toddler, Herb and they practice music in a padded room. Kiki tells us that she is in her 90's and had met everyone important on this palnet, including Sylvia Plath who had the habbit of putting her head in the oven and one day there was no one around and it was too late. Then Kiki gets up and sing many songs, the most effective was, "Crucify, " by Tori Amos, Kiss's "I was made for loving you, " Radiohead's "Creep" and "Jesus Loves MeThis I Know." My very favorite song Kiki sang towards the very end, "Send In The Clowns." by Stephen Sondheim. At one point Kiki looks at the audience with great affection and says, "If I could love I would love all of you." This sentence had such pathos of the awareness of suffering and survival which all human go through but the cabaret act is very much about the happiness of approaching Christmas and being able to celebrate together after the most awful year of isolation. There is also mention of HIV/AIDS epidemic and World AIDS Day which falls on Dec 1, the day I attended the show.

Bond's Kiki also have great critiques of religion and society, At one poing Kiki raises the question about Immaculate Conception as if Mary  was asked for consent or not. No matter what Kiki says can't be annoying at all, actually it's highly amusing and that's because the perfection of their craft together. Mellman and Bond have been performing for a long time and their style, their emotions, their singing is priceless even when Kiki drops the mike and an audience member comes on stage and picks it up for her because she is supposed to be more tha 90 years old and can't bend down so easily. Hillarious and intelligent with incredible wit and sophistication. Their stories seem more real than any real story I have been told. There is courage, conviction, honesty and talent involved. Lots of talent. Bravo.

Reviewed by Bina Sharif

for, artsinternational.blogspot.com

BINA SHARIF: EDITOR, FOUNDER OF artsinternational.blogspot.com

Member of American Theater Critics Association, (ATCA)

email: binashariff@gmail.com

Mobile: 212-260-6207

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