Writer : Mahesh Dattani Direction : Jonathan Taikina Taylor Cast : Sachin Ravindran, Juan Diego Bonilla, Priiya, Manjari K, Caitlin George & Harsh Tharad
THE MONK THE WARRIOR Review
If you tried looking for any sort of coherence of time, place or chronological accuracy in Mahesh Dattani's latest play, THE MONK & THE WARRIOR, you would find yourself at your wit’s end. And that is, perhaps, the point.
Broadly, it tells the story of the end of Alexander the Great’s conquest after the battle of the Jhelum and his documented meeting with a monk. The play looks at this meeting through a queer lens, imagining that the two men may have fallen for each other and that Alexander may have stopped war in return for love.
However, while Dattani wrote the script, the play was conceptualized and directed by Jonathan Taikina Taylor â€" a devised piece â€" so any linear storytelling is traded for episodic arcs, dance routine breaks, songs and periods of movement or chanting with no dialogue.
What Taylor and the actors have tried to bring through is not a particular story but the queer experience as a whole: the guilt of closeted queer individuals, the need to hide or move away from one’s own identity, bliss at having finally found true love, joy when a loveless heteronormative marriage finally ends, the desire to cross-dress, the broad struggle to accept your true self without shame, even the anger and hurt the abandoned wife feels when her husband discovers he may be gay. All this is woven together through stories of historical and mythical heroes and heroines, legends and folktales. There’s the story of Gangotri, of the sister-wives and queens Chandravati and Malavati who became lovers after being widowed, of Rumi and Shams Tabrizi, of the monkey and the crocodile, Aravan and Mohini, and of course, Alexander and the monk.
An especially enjoyable scene is where Alexander briefly falls sick after consuming stale food and in a state of mental disorientation has a vision of his mother, Queen Olympias. Played with a delicious devilry by Caitlin George, Olympias emerges from the river to tell him that the monk poisoned him.
The costumes have been well designed by Pallavi Patel to befit various characters and props are used to great effect by “scenic designer†Jackie Fox on an otherwise sparse set. The scenes with the river and the characters’ interactions with it are especially interesting.
Through all the song-and-dance, the comedy is done quite well, but the emotional core lacks a little. The main romantic arc should have felt more immersive in order to truly touch the viewer. This arc would have especially benefited from a deeper and more detailed storyline - perhaps exploring the time the monk and Alexander spend together. However, what must be lauded is the boldness of the queer scenes and what they were trying to tell the audience: love may be unusual and imperfect, yet still worth celebrating â€" much like the play itself.
*Neha Shende is an avid theatre-goer and enjoys watching old Bollywood movies in her free time.
