A Brooklyn theater company is presenting a minimalist staging of E.M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India:
… the company uses a single, brushed-metal set, simple white costumes, a few chairs and props, and a small cast of actors to present Forster’s multilayered story of cultural conflict in colonial India… there are some clever bits of invention in Ms. Meckler’s staging – for example, a lumbering elephant represented by a pyramid of softly swaying actors… no more illuminating is the decision to recast the tale as a flashback, and employ the novel’s most prominent Hindu character, Godbole, as narrator…[Forster] clearly meant Dr. Aziz to embody the unfettered emotionalism that he observed in Indian Muslims. As played by Mr. Caan, he is temperate and considered, a perfectly turned-out, machine-tooled product of British colonialism. Dr. Aziz concludes the play with a passionate speech denouncing the British occupying forces, but you wouldn’t be surprised to see him turn around and invite his enemy to join him in a game of cricket.
At Brooklyn Academy of Music, Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene through Saturday.
very interesting concept Manish..minimalist staging..and passage to india on stage sounds good. the novel and the movie were very interesting.. wish they play this in all cities in US and not just NY… In india some ten years back, in calcutta and other big cities they had street plays with the same minimalist staging concept where actors would act on streets and often choose powerful novels and plays to fight against social evils ( forgot the name of the famous communist who was involved in this street play movement in india)..that was also very interesting ..on a busy street without stage or high fi sound system or mikes , u would just see people dressed in orange or white robes just stage plays including dialogues and dance to convey their opinions on social/political evils to every man walking on the streets… I also liked ur post on vijay tendulkars play (sikaram binder) in NY…story was very interesting and sounded very realistic portraying a typical indian middle class man..