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Traitor: A play
Written and directed by Tripurari Sharma, “Traitor” is a play that looks back at the 1857 war for Indian Independence. The play produced by Hungry Hearts Festival and supported by the South Asian Network of Gender Activists and Trainers (SANGAT) will be enacted on August 8 in New Delhi.
| What | |
|---|---|
| When |
08 August 2008
08 August 2008
08-08-2008 from 00:00 to 00:00 |
| Where | New Delhi, India |
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“Traitor” – a play set in the late nineteenth century. Through the eyes of its protagonists, it looks back at the 1857 battle for Indian independence.
A British woman, saved by an Indian man from the violence of 1857, returns after seventeen years to look for his daughter. There she finds many people struggling in their own ways, seeking to deal with the changes forced upon them – a man bereft of his family, a daughter who had lost her father, a wife her husband.
According to playwright and director Tripurari Sharma, the play, “Traitor”, is neither a linear narration of the historic event and its impact, nor is it only about individuals and their struggles to deal with the angst of love and desertion. It is about multiple identities trapped in situations of war and strife.
On the genesis of the play, Sharma states: “I chanced upon little stories of ordinary people caught in the war of 1857; in the course of my research, I also came upon a number of elaborate, descriptive letters written by British people. These opened my eyes to a new perspective, that of the foreign invader as ordinary people with ordinary lives, aspirations and feelings.”
“Traitor” highlights the extraordinary turmoil of ordinary lives caught at a crucial juncture of history. Sharma realised that it did not matter whether a person was a soldier of the Indian army fighting for freedom, or a soldier defending British rulers, or even a British ‘white’. What mattered was that all were part of the churning, the conflict, and the difficult choices.
“In the circumstances, it was not for a bystander to judge who was loyal, and who, the traitor.”
It is not difficult to draw parallels with current conflicts in our society today. “The anger just festers and grows,” observes Sharma, “there must be a space in time where people are able to look into themselves, at the anger and guilt, to ask questions and seek answers, most of all to find healing and peace.”
The play is produced by Hungry Hearts Festival and supported by SANGAT, the South Asian Network of Gender Activists and Trainers.
Kamla Bhasin, feminist activist and coordinator of SANGAT, recommends the play to viewers, “It is a powerful play – both in terms of its messages of love, forgiveness and healing, and in terms of its relevance to our times.”
August 6 and 9, 1945. Dates the world would never wish to forget. On these dates, nearly 200,000 people were killed or injured by atomic bombs that destroyed two cities of Japan. Today India is proudly poised to finalise a nuclear deal with the very country that was responsible for the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The South Asian continent is a boiling cauldron of national and international conflicts. SANGAT believes that war cannot be the answer - only JUST PEACE can be the answer to the crises in the region.
Venue: India Islamic Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi.
Date and Time: August 8, 2008; 7.30 pm.
Tickets: Available at the India Islamic Cultural Centre on August 8 from 12:00 noon to 7:00 pm at Rs 250/. Students can avail of the discounted tickets at Rs.50/- against valid IDs.
For Telebooking: +91-11-2602 7845/ 26033088, 9818201455 and for Online Booking, mail info.hungryheart_4@yahoo.co.in, space.kriti@gmail.com.
