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The Arts

Disenchanted lives

Eugene Correia in Toronto

It's almost 80 minutes of back and forth and round and round movements of five characters who share their lives bound by relationships but are unable to break through the familiar familial and cultural traps.

In his debut play, Circles of Love, Uganda-born Al-Noor Peera tries to bring on stage the tribulations of an Indian family that in today's terms could be called dysfunctional. On the programme blurb, Peera explains, "In writing Circles of Love, I wanted to explore memory. Memory is not lifeless, it is constantly moving and changing. We carry these fragments of life with us. These moments and histories are alive and present. They are hopelessly tied to our future."

The playwright's effort to bring his message to the audience is at times confusing because the scenes often merge with one another and seem to serve as layers. He says, "I wanted to show how the family fails to live in love. Love should be everything. Love conquers all. The father does not love the mother, the son kills his wife, and the son and father don't see eye to eye. The son's gay friend seeks happiness, but doesn't find it. The father has an affair, the mother was raped by his business partner but he blames his wife for it. He has a male pride."

Founder of Under the Painted Tent to help develop South Asian writers, Peera admitted that the play could be taxing. "I didn't want to make it simplistic. The audience must go home thinking about the play," he says.

Playing the role of Zuhra Mohamed, Goldy Notay props up the play with a sterling performance that at times sizzles with sexual energy. A graduate of the George Brown Theatre School, Notay starred in the main role of the movie Death Threat and a role of a pre-medical student in Mira Nair's My Own Country. "Stage acting and film acting have their own challenges. They are completely different," she says.

Asked how she felt with the kissing scenes on stage, Notay remarks, "Initially I was a bit nervous. But after time, I felt comfortable. Besides, I knew Vijay [who plays her boyfriend and husband] quite well and that helped."

She says she isn't bold in real life, but felt she had to bring herself to play the character of Zuhra, who is defiant and outrageous. Currently part of the new Playwrights Collective at Nightwood Theatre, Notay will provide a spoken word play of her The Hindu Who Went to Heaven, a satire that she hopes to develop into a full-length play.

Hitting it off with Notay as the central pair in the play was Vijay Mehta, who plays the role of Jamil Kuchra, a troubled soul who hates his dad, but loves his mom. The Ottawa-born Mehta too admits that he was taken aback initially while doing the kissing scenes. "I had no problems dealing with the situations that called for different mood behaviours," he says.

Well-known for her TV work in The Polka Dot Door, a children's show, Mishu Vellani appears cool and collected though she carries the pain of an unhappy marriage in her role as Nigar Kuchra, Jamil's mother. "I enjoyed working with Ishwar Mooljee [who plays the husband]. I had to be happy when I am with the son, whom I love very much, and in remorse when I am in the presence of my husband," she says.

As Nigar, Vellani is placed diametrically opposite Notay's character Zuhra. Nigar hates Zuhra, a liberated, modern woman while she leads a hopelessly dreary life. Therein lies the irony.

Iswar Mooljee as Kabir Kuchra, the dominating, self-oriented father, is steady. With years of stage experience and having recently performed in the translated Naga Mandala, the celebrated Girish Karnad play, Mooljee is smooth as silk.

The South Africa-born retired teacher says, "The play is bit difficult. But it was enjoyable to have been part of a wonderful cast." Mooljee and Vellani will be seen again together in Umrao, the famous Urdu play which was also made into the Rekha-starrer Umrao Jaan. The play will be performed in English under the direction of Sally Jones, who was impressed with it on a visit to India and brought it back to Canada.

Anand Rajaram, as Rafiq Shariq, the homosexual friend of Jamil and former boyfriend of Zuhra, makes his second stage appearance. He was last seen at the same Passe Muraille Theatre in Gandhi High, staged in 1997. "My parents felt uncomfortable watching me play the role of a gay person," he admits. "But I love my character who is good-hearted and honest."

As the Lata Mangeshkar song, 'Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein...' plays in the background during the tender moments between Jamil and Zuhra, sometimes the heart suffers the pangs of living an immigrant life in a new land. Peera obviously drew from his own Ismaili family background to create what he terms "a play about family values".

Asked why the play explores the negative aspects of an Indian family, he remarks, half-seriously, "I am the greatest pessimist in the world."

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