(Thiru Naidoo, Rajesh Gopie and Yateen Dayaram)Rajesh Gopie presents entertaining, well-acted and fascinating play. (Review by Maurice Kort)
Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of Indians arriving in South Africa as indentured workers portrayed in entertaining, well-acted and fascinating play.
What better way to commemorate the historic event of the 150th Anniversary of the arrival of the Indians in South Africa than the mounting of the play The Coolie Odyssey at the iZulu Theatre? Imagine large numbers of Indians, to escape the grinding poverty and hopelessness of their native Calcutta, being uprooted from their own country and undertaking the extreme hardship and danger of the trip in the holds of large ships to start a new life in a strange land as indentured workers in back-breaking work on the sugar plantations in Natal - the material for true drama indeed.
Well-known talented stage, television and film actor, Rajesh Gopie, a fifth generation descendent of these indentured labourers who came from the Deccan Plateau in Northern India in the 1860s, has written and directed an insightful play surrounding these events.
The play starts in modern day Durban in the home of Mrs Naidoo (Avershree Maistry) and her lost son Neelan (Yanteen Dayaram) who is intent on committing suicide. He is prevented from doing so by Montford (Nhlakanipho Manqele) but in doing so, a monkey up in a tree (Thiru Naidoo) is shot and wounded. He is cared for by the Naidoos and turns out to be the reincarnation of Ramlal Kilharil, an indentured labourer, who proceeds to bash away at a typewriter and tell the story of those immigrants, their trials and tribulations, hardships and labours as little more than slaves.
The simple wooden scaffold structure dominating the centre stage becomes the home of Mrs Naidoo, the tree when the monkey is on its roof and is shot, and then the ship in the hold of which the indentured workers undertake the agonising journey to their new land. Surviving sickness and hardship, the immigrants arrive at the sugar farm for their five years of virtual slavery before they may return to their homeland. Completing the cast, who each undertake several roles during the play, are Vishendran Sing as Ganga and Renaldo Moodley who gives much credence to the roles of the Recruiting Agent in India and the Manager of the sugar plantation, Mr Wycombe.
There is great rapport among the young cast members with very good overall convincing performances all round and effective use of the whole stage in front of the central construction. Their voice projection was very professional and every word could be heard where I had been seated, in the nose-bleed section in the back row in the cavernous iZulu Theatre. The acoustics are good. Adding atmosphere to the production are the musicians Amith Singh and Aveer Singh under the Musical Director, Mumbai sufi singing star Anuraag Dhoundiyal. This does not intrude or overwhelm and there is a nice balance. This also applies to the small amount of back projection to set the scene of the origins of the labourers in India and shadow Indian dancing, also on the back screen. How the workers cope with their suffering, their helplessness under the iniquitous indenture system, and their interaction with each other, including their ingrained upper and lower caste system, are well handled in this play, particularly in the first act. However, the second act is a little "bitty" and needs to be tightened.
The Coolie Odyssey premiered at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 2002, before enjoying a highly-successful season at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg and is now produced by Theatre Arts Projects, in Association with Rajesh Gopie, and supported by New National Assurance. It combines compassion with humour to reveal important insights into the identity of South African Indians, their role, significance and contribution to South Africa, and the ongoing issues of race relations and nation-building.
Another play focusing on the indenture of workers from India for the sugar plantations in Natal between the years 1860 to 1911, Bittersweet, written by Yusuf Haffejee and directed by Pranesh Maharaj, has recently been mounted in Durban. With their several similarities, they complement each other and give more details of these events in the colourful history of the arrival of the Indians to South Africa who continue to contribute so much to this Rainbow Nation. Their survival of those pioneering colonial times as portrayed in this play makes for an entertaining experience.
The Coolie Odyssey runs at the iZulu Theatre, Sibaya Casino, until November 21 with performances on Tuesdays to Friday at 20h00 and on Saturday and Sunday at 17h00. Tickets R100 (no concessions) booked through Computicket. For corporate bookings, sold houses and fundraisers call 082 872 54 87. – Maurice Kort
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