Writer : Ramanjit Kaur & Ruhani Singh Direction : Ramanjit Kaur Cast : Ruhani Singh
HOME IN A SUITCASE Review
In an increasingly globalized world, where people are travelling across cities and countries to study or work, the concept of home becomes fluid. Strangely, instead of making native populations more inclusive, there has risen - more so in recent years - a fear of the 'outsider'. This has resulted in tragic cases of hate killings in the West and forced eviction of immigrants from their family homes. In India, the horrific murder of a young man from the North East, did not cause enough outrage; in the US, the hostility towards an Indian eating palak paneer in a common dining area, hit depths of absudity.
Ramanjit Kaur and Ruhani Singh, the talented mother-daughter duo of theatremakers, have created HOME IN A SUITCASE, a solo piece, emerging from Singh's senior thesis project, Documents Please. Singh plays Taarini, a woman in her 20s, who is moving back 'home' to Kolkata, after spending years and making her own space in New York. How can one pack memories and experiences into a single suitcase?
As she rushes to the airport with her luggage, she misplaces her passport-which is every traveller's nightmare. In the state of panic at missing her flight, as her large family in Kolkata waits to celebrate her birthday, Taarini takes out objects and photos from the suitcase and reminisces about her growing up years.
She also reveals that once she returns to Kolkata, she will pack again to move to Mumbai, where she hopes to make a career in showbiz. That sense of displacement again, and the quest to grow, when roots and dreams are elsewhere. Some may find it easy to transplant to another place and enjoy the process of discovery, for others, it might be a lonely, scary process. Taarini, for instance, carries the burden of family expectations and her own aspiration on her back, in that suitcase.
Ramanjit Kaur, who was working with Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry in Chandigarh, moved to Kolkata, has lived there for 30 years, and done theatre there, but still wonders if she has let go of the place of her growing up years and been accepted fully in her adopted city.
Using mood lighting (Daulat Vaid), choreographed movements, (Asish Singha), video projection (Rajesh Gupta) and often unsettling music (Teej and Jaisheej Paul), along with interactions with the audience (she starts by distributing roses and later homemade pinni) Ruhani Singh bring out that sense of wistfulness. The audience is also asked to fill up a form in which they are asked about their memories, the smell that reminds them of home, and so on. Ruhani reads out some responses. A memory like the smell of father's cigarettes or the missing mango tree in the courtyard, evoke the melancholy of the past in the minds of the audience too, making the performance interactive in a unique way.
(Deepa Gahlot is a journalist, columnist, author and curator. Some of her writings are on deepagahlot.com)
