Ashwin Singh's Portfolio

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ASHWIN SINGH’S PORTFOLIO Email: [email protected] 0

Transcript of Ashwin Singh's Portfolio

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ASHWIN SINGH’SPORTFOLIO

Email: [email protected]. No: +27 76 238 8168;

+27 31 569 4626

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An Introduction to Ashwin Singh &his Production Partners 2

Summary of Artistic Activities 5

Production pic of Spice ‘n Stuff 8

Newspaper clip about PANSA Playreading Festival 8

SAWAF Poster pic of Beyond the Big Bangs 9

CAMP Mentors 10

Synopsis of Ashwin Singh’s Major Works 11

A Collection of Reviews 14

Hyderabad Times Theatre Guide 21

Durban Dialogues, Indian Voice Description,including Pics and Reviews 22

The 3-D Conference Description and Pics 32

INTRODUCTION TO ASHWIN SINGH

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AND HIS PRODUCTION PARTNERS

Ashwin Singh is an attorney, trainer, playwright, actor and director. He has been internationally published as both a playwright and an academic author. Aurora Metro Books (UK) published his play To House in the 2006 anthology New South African Plays and in 2013 the company published an anthology of his five best plays entitled Durban Dialogues, Indian Voice. Catalina UnLtd have also published his play Spice ‘n Stuff in the 2013 collective anthology The Catalina Collection. His works have been studied or referenced at a variety of local and overseas universities, most particularly the Durban University of Technology, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Mahila College, India. His productions have travelled throughout South Africa and to India.

Singh is a three time national award winner for playwriting via the PANSA Playreading Festival (South Africa’s foremost playwriting contest). He has received critical acclaim for his performances on stage, radio and screen. He has also presented several workshops on contracts and business enterprises for Catalina UnLtd, the Playhouse Company and PANSA and he is a script writing and legal mentor for the Playhouse Company’s Community Arts Mentorship Programme. The Singh Siblings, the Playhouse Company and Catalina UnLtd have been the most prolific producers of Singh’s plays.

Below is a brief description of these entities:

The Singh Siblings is an arts association without corporate status. Members Ashwin Singh and Shantal Singh wanted to create an arts association to deal specifically with local projects, particularly of their own creation, and local training programmes for aspiring artists. They did not want to manage a private company or formal partnership but simply to collaborate on a project-by-project basis based on mutual interest. They believe strongly in the creation and development of authentic South African works, particularly works which focus on marginalised communities and unsung heroes. Their main focus is on theatre and literature but they intend expanding into the world of art movies in due course. Ashwin Singh’s main role in the association is that of artistic director. Shantal Singh is a highly regarded clinical psychologist, theatre producer and creator of children’s stories, and she is the producer and financial consultant in the association.

The Playhouse Company, declared in terms of Section 3(1) of the Cultural Institutions Act, No. 119 of 1998, is one of the premier arts institutions in South Africa with an international reputation for producing works which are culturally diverse and artistically profound. The Playhouse is situated in Durban, South Africa’s most diverse city, and houses several world class theatre venues in a building which has been declared a national monument. The Playhouse manages a multi-dimensional arts programme which celebrates South Africa’s multi-cultural heritage and also presides over detailed training programmes designed to empower young learners and community artists. Linda Bukhosini is the company’s CEO and Artistic Director. She has produced several of Singh’s works on their in-house festival programmes, particularly the New Stages Festival and the South African Women’s Arts Festival. These productions include To House, Spice ‘n Stuff, Marital Blitz, Beyond the Big Bangs and Culture Clash (which was commissioned by Bukhosini and co-written by Singh and Edmund Mhlongo). She has also contracted Singh over several years as a chief mentor on the Company’s prized development programme, the Community Arts Mentorship Programme (CAMP).

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The Catalina UnLtd Theatre Company is a non-profit, public benefit theatre company founded in 2006 by renowned Durban director and theatre maker Themi Venturas. The company manages the Catalina Theatre, a quaint venue situated on Durban’s picturesque harbour. It also produces cutting edge, multi-cultural South African works which it stages at the Catalina and then tours nationally. The company has produced Singh’s plays Spice ‘n Stuff and Shooting and has co-produced the first stagings of his works To House and the Looney Lahnee Show. Venturas has directed the premieres of Spice ‘n Stuff and Reoca Light. Singh is a former executive board member of the company.

NB: The Singh Siblings has the first option to produce Singh’s works, either independently or in collaboration with other companies, including the companies described above.

General Information about Ashwin Singh

Date of Birth: 15/12/71Nationality: South AfricanMarital Status: SingleLanguages: English (home language) and Afrikaans (working proficiency)Academic Qualifications: BA; LL.B (UKZN;1992 and 1994)Professional Qualifications: Attorney of the High Court of South Africa (1999); Accredited

SETA’s Generic Assessor (2003)Referees: Zaakir Ally (Attorney and Conveyancer) : + 27 82 414 0162;

zaakir@ netactive.co.zaThemi Venturas (Theatre Director and Administrator) : +27 82 554 8334; [email protected]

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SUMMARY OF ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES

1. ACADEMIC AND CREATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Anthology of plays entitled Durban Dialogues, Indian Voice (Main Edition), published by UK Publications Company, Aurora Metro Books (2013)

Anthology of plays entitled Durban Dialogues, Indian Voice (Educational Edition), published by UK Publications Company, Aurora Metro Books (2013)

Drama entitled Spice ‘n Stuff published in anthology entitled The Catalina Collection, published by the Catalina UnLtd Theatre Company (2013)

Co-author, with Sheeda Kalideen, of law textbook entitled Corporate and Business Law, published by the ExP Group (2012)

Drama entitled To House published in the anthology New South African Plays by Aurora Metro Books (2006)

Variety of poems published in three collective anthologies entitled Deep Reflections, Millennium Moment, and New Horizons by The Poetry Institute of Africa (1999 – 2001)

2. PERFORMING ARTS HIGHLIGHTS

2.1 Playwriting

Author of the following plays and skit comedies:To House; Duped; Spice ‘n Stuff; Shooting; Reoca Light; Marital Blitz (co-authored with Kajal Maharaj & Nesan Pather); Culture Clash (co-authored with Edmund Mhlongo); Beyond the Big Bangs; The Looney Lahnee Show; PopCom and Swing. To House, Duped and Reoca Light selected for the finals of the Performing Arts

Network of South Africa (PANSA) National Playwriting Festivals in 2003, 2005 and 2012 respectively. Reoca Light runner-up.

To House script purchased for a limited period by the Playhouse Company between September 2006 and March 2007.

To House published in the anthology New South African Plays by Aurora Metro Publication Ltd (2006)

Shooting selected for the Main Festival (The Arena Programme) at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival (2011).

Reoca Light shortlisted for the Africa Playwriting Project by the Royal National Theatre in London (2011).

Marital Blitz selected for the Qadir Ali Baig International Theatre Festival in Hyderabad, India (2012)

2.2 Theatre Productions

At the Playhouse:

To House staged as a Playhouse Company in-house production in November 2006Spice ‘n Stuff selected for the Playhouse Company’s Drama Festival, New Stages, in October 2010Marital Blitz selected for New Stages in May 2012Culture Clash selected for New Stages in May 2013

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Beyond the Big Bangs selected for the South African Women’s Arts Festival in August 2014

At the Catalina Theatre:

This theatre premiered the following plays:To House – March 2005Spice ‘n Stuff – May 2007Shooting – May 2010Reoca Light and Duped will premiere here in 2016/17

At the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square in Sandton:

Spice ‘n Stuff staged as an in-association production between the Catalina UnLtd Theatre Company and Daphne Kuhn in May/June 2011. Beyond the Big Bangs to be staged as a co-production in March 2016.

At the Grahamstown National Arts Festival:

Shooting selected for the Main Festival (The Arena Programme) in July 2011.

2.3 Comedy Productions

The Catalina Comedy Collective, co-produced with Themi Venturas and staged at the Catalina Theatre in February 2003

The Looney Lahnee Show, co-produced with the Avalon Group and staged at the Suncoast Supernova in February 2009

The Looney Lahnee Show, co-produced with the Catalina UnLtd Theatre Company and staged at the Catalina Theatre in March 2009

PopCom, co-produced with the Avalon Group, staged at the Suncoast Supernova in April 2012

PopCom, co-produced with the Playhouse Company, staged at the Playhouse Loft in September 2012.

2.4 Stage Performances

Performed lead or supporting role in the following productions: The Comedy Festival Called Fred (Bat Centre, 1997) The Rainbow Indignation (KwaSuka Theatre, 2001) The Catalina Comedy Collective (Catalina Theatre, 2003) Spice ‘n Stuff (Catalina Theatre, 2007 & 2011; Playhouse Loft, 2010; Old Mutual

Theatre on the Square, 2011) New Suburbia (iZulu Theatre, Sibaya, 2008; Catalina Theatre, 2008) The Looney Lahnee Show (Suncoast Supernova, 2009; Catalina Theatre, 2009) Thunsil (Playhouse Drama, 2009) Marital Blitz (Suncoast Supernova, 2011 and Playhouse Loft, 2012) PopCom (Suncoast Supernova and Playhouse Loft, 2012) Culture Clash (Playhouse Loft, 2013)

2.5 Directorial Experience

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Director of the following stage productions: To House (Catalina Theatre, 2005) The Looney Lahnee Show (Suncoast Supernova and Catalina Theatre, 2009) Shooting (Catalina Theatre, 2010 and National Arts Festival, 2011) Marital Blitz (Suncoast Supernova, 2011 and Playhouse Loft, 2012) PopCom (Suncoast Supernova, April 2012 and Playhouse Loft, October 2012) Beyond the Big Bangs (Playhouse Loft, August 2014 and Theatre on the Square,

March 2016)

2.6 Radio and Film

Writer of daily radio drama serials on Lotus FM entitled GrandAsia Lodge and Spice ‘n Stuff in 2006 and 2007

Performed in various radio dramas on Lotus FM in 2006 and 2007, including GrandAsia Lodge, Spice ‘n Stuff, Kismet Court, Psycho Art, and Switch Hitch

Wrote and performed in comedy sketches on East Coast Radio in 2002 and 2003 Nigel Vermaas’ radio adaptation of To House broadcast on SAFM in March 2009 Played minor role in Claire Angelique’s award-winning film My Little Black Heart in

2006 Played lead role in award-winning UK director James Brown’s short film One

Wedding and a Funeral in 2008

3. SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENTS, AWARDS AND LEADERSHIP POSITIONS

Former National and Provincial Executive Member of PANSA (2003-2007) Former Executive Board Member of the Catalina UnLtd Theatre Company (2006-

2011) Former editor of the UKZN English Literary Society (1995) Former Senior Student Representative at the Advice Desk for Abused Women (1993-

1995) Legal and Script Writing Mentor for the Playhouse Company’s Community Arts

Mentorship Programme (2010 - ) Theatre Management Mentor for the Catalina Internship Programme (2011/2012) Winner of three National PANSA Playwriting Awards for To House, Duped and

Reoca Light (2003,2005 and 2012) To House and Spice ‘n Stuff nominated for several Durban Theatre Awards, but I do

not enter these awards in my personal capacity due to their ethnocentric nature (2005-2007)

Several presentations done for the arts community on contracts and business enterprises on behalf of PANSA and the Playhouse Company at the Catalina Theatre and the Playhouse (2003-2013)

Adjudicator of the Minara Aziz Hassim Literary Award (MAHLA) (2015) Board Member of the DUT Drama Industry Liaison Board (2015 -) First international conference focusing exclusively on my plays in June 2016 at the

Playhouse, Durban

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Rory Booth and Nthando Mncube in a scene from Spice ‘n Stuff at the Catalina Theatre (2011)

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Derosha Moodley, Shona Johnson and Annalisa Gxabu in the poster pic of Beyond the Big Bangs premiere season at the Playhouse as part of SAWAF (2014)

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To House (2003):

Duration: 100 mins Genre: Drama Current Director: Ralph Lawson

To House is set in a multi-cultural sectional titles development in a typical middle class Durban suburb. It is essentially about the clash of the conservative cultures which dominate the Durban political landscape in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Jason and Sanjay have a tentative friendship based on mutual needs and their increasing condemnation of hotshot lawyer, Sibusiso Khumalo, who lives in the same sectional titles development. Jason is increasingly alienated from his community and is battling to deal with the consequences of his recent job loss and pending divorce. Sanjay is in a professional battle with Sibusiso and is struggling with his attraction to Sibusiso’s live-in girlfriend, Kajol, which he cannot express. Meanwhile Sibusiso is longing for greater independence as he becomes seduced by Western materialism but has to deal with the consequences of Kajol’s mother’s ill treatment by her extended family. The arrival in the second half of the play of Kajol’s Machiavellian uncle, Deena serves as the catalyst to expose the truth behind the characters courses of action which ends in a brutal confrontation between Sibusiso and Jason.

Although set in a specific Durban context, the play’s themes of security, the abuse of power, and the country’s increasing shift from a pure race based struggle to a class based struggle will have universal appeal.

Spice ‘n Stuff (2006):

Duration: 105 mins Genre: Dramedy Current Director: Themi Venturas

Spice ‘n Stuff is a tantalising mixture of comedy and drama. It traces the last days of a group of Grey Street traders as they deal with escalating crime, failing businesses, friendships across racial and cultural denominations and entwined family relationships. The play showcases a female trader, Rita, in the central role. It is the pressures of dwindling business that preoccupies Rita but it is the fear of her secret which threatens to unravel her, as she undergoes an emotional journey of self-discovery. The actions of the street and the poignancy of the store becomes increasingly sensitising as it plays out to a dramatic finale. Spice ‘n Stuff is a celebration of life, here, now, and always.

Shooting (2009):

Duration: 102 mins Genre: Drama Current Director: Ashwin Singh

Shooting is about a young man recalling his bittersweet childhood and letting go of some of its painful memories on the day he attends the funeral of his cousin who might have been a real football star in different circumstances. He relates both the comic and tragic stories of his youth, growing up in an extended family living in a typical Indian community environment. The main focal point of the play is about his relationship with his supremely talented cousin – a boy who might have grown up into a national football star but who was a victim of both his

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abusive father and the fact that the little, racially segregated towns of the Apartheid era had not significantly changed in the early days of democracy.

Reoca Light (2010):

Duration: 72 mins Genre: Drama Current Director: Themi Venturas

A young man, Sunil Mohan, is presiding over the closure of his parents’ convenience store after a series of robberies, when he is approached by a local journalist for the story behind the story about the store which became known as the “light of Reoca”. Mohan recounts how his parents started trading from a little hut before purchasing the store and how they were inspired by his great, great grandfather, who dreamed of starting a convenience store while working on the sugar cane plantations in the 1870s. Mohan also relives his exciting experiences with the three men who most influenced his life – his father; his mentor, Uncle Johnny; and his parents’ employee, Themba. Combining storytelling, cutting edge character drama, a variety of comedy styles, and bold visuals, Reoca Light is a unique theatrical experience. It is also a thought provoking and highly entertaining one-man play which provides valuable insights into Indian and Zulu community life and our shared histories. Performed by Singh himself.

Duped (2011):

Duration: 105 mins Genre: Satire Current Director: Deborah Lutge

Duped is a mixed-genre play about the international hijacking of a supersonic vessel during a BRICS Conference in Durban. A renegade American scientist helps South Africa to construct a multi-purpose, technically superior airship and one of its earliest missions is to stop a perceived terrorist threat to the conference at Durban’s International Convention Centre. But is there really a terrorist threat or is it just a smokescreen? Who’s doing what to whom, on the airship and below? And why?

Duped combines satire, suspense and science fiction to tell a stirring story of South Africa’s complex socio-political landscape and the conflicts and connections of six diverse characters on the airship.

Marital Blitz (2011) [Co-written with Kajal Maharaj and Nesan Pather]:

Duration: 75 mins Genre: Comedy Current Director: Ashwin Singh

Marital Blitz is a romantic comedy about the misdemeanours, miscommunications and misunderstandings in marriage. Newlyweds, Sanvir and Shalini must cope with the strains and stresses of their marriage, the responsibilities of their new life and Shalini’s sneaking suspicion that her husband may be hiding something. Added to this are the antics of Sanvir’s mysterious and eccentric boss, Mr. Poona, and the unusual tips about a successful marriage provided by Shalini’s friend, Desiree.

What on earth is Poona up to? Is the sweet Sanvir really up to something or is Shalini just being paranoid? Marital Blitz is an action-packed and fun-filled comedy, which also features some modern Indian dancing and a rap song. It is, however, also a play which exposes some

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of the cultural dynamics of the Indian South African community and emphasizes the importance of honest communication between spouses.

PopCom (2012):

Duration: 90 mins Genre: Comedy Current Director: Ashwin Singh

PopCom is a sketch comedy show which utilizes a variety of comedy styles to present anecdotes and stories about the Indian and Coloured communities in Durban. The different comedy sketches include a look at corrupt cops and eccentric burglars, racism causing erectile dysfunction, how to be a successful bus conductor, dubious skin lightening products and a satirical news bulletin called Minority Report. The show features a kaleidoscope of memorable characters whom audiences will recognize and appreciate. Although the themes of the show are adult in nature, the language is not profane in any way, so PopCom can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Culture Clash (2012) [Co-written with Edmund Mhlongo; commissioned by the Playhouse Company]:

Duration: 70 mins Genre: Dramedy Current Director: Edmund Mhlongo

Bhekani Mthethwa is an over-ambitious young Zulu man who is at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal where he meets his dream girl, Latisha. The only challenge is that Latisha is of Indian origin and he is therefore not sure how his parents will react. Latisha comes from a conservative Hindu family. Mthethwa, Bhekani’s father is strongly invested in Zulu culture but is also a churchgoer. His mother, MaNcube is a practicing Sangoma but a very open-minded person regarding cross cultural relations. Latisha’s father (Reddy) is a former foreman of Sorghum Brew firm in Durban. Mthethwa worked at the firm as a labourer and their professional relationship ended in acrimony. The scene is set for a major confrontation at the Reddy’s house. Culture Clash is an exploration of the complexities and contradictions of South Africa’s evolving democracy. Its examination of cultural and generational conflict illustrates South Africa’s many challenges in coming to terms with the weight of its turbulent past whilst attempting to deal with the needs and demands of the post-Apartheid generation. Ultimately, the play offers genuine hope for real integration and reconciliation.

Beyond The Big Bangs (2013):

Duration: 102 mins Genre: Dramedy Current Director: Ashwin Singh

Beyond The Big Bangs is the story of three Durban women – one Black, one Indian and one mixed-race, as they reflect together and separately about the complex challenges each one faces in a multi-cultural, middle class suburb.

Sandra is a domestic worker, who is caught in the middle of an ongoing racial conflict between her employers and their neighbours; Gita has been labelled a “gambling granny” and now seeks to break this stereotype whilst finding both pleasure in the casino and deeper connections in her neighbourhood; and Lindiwe is preparing for her disciplinary hearing, standing accused of slapping an insulting pupil just months after being stabbed by another pupil at her previous school. The challenges and contradictions of inter-cultural relations as

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well as the complexities of shared histories and women’s identity are all explored in this funny and poignant work.

Swing (2015):

Duration: 85 mins Genre: Drama Current Director: Chantal Snyman

This is Singh’s new play, a two-hander about a mixed-race professional tennis player and her relationship with her father/coach. Samantha falls in love with tennis when she is a little girl and her father Ram nurtures her talent and a strong value system in their economically challenged community. The play examines their complex journey, focusing particularly on their evolving partnership and Samantha’s fierce rivalry with the gifted Lerato Sibisi.

NB: Singh has selected Reoca Light and Beyond the Big Bangs as the 2 mascots of his intellectual property. These are the 2 works which he also wants to tour internationally. The reasons for the aforementioned are as follows:

- Reoca Light and Beyond the Big Bangs deal with contemporary South African issues but also substantially examine our turbulent history. They are dynamic pieces of entertainment but also important cultural documents;

- Reoca Light focuses on a group of men who are unsung heroes in democratic South Africa whilst Beyond the Big Bangs deals with the trials and tribulations of 3 Black women in a multi-cultural Durban suburb. The works therefore represent a broad cultural spectrum;

- Both works are economically viable and logistically uncomplicated to tour. The innovative, mobile set has been successfully used for both productions.

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AURORA METRO BOOKS

DURBAN DIALOGUES, INDIAN VOICEFive South African Plays

Ashwin Singh• Contemporary play collection from award-winning playwright • Ideal for schools, colleges and theatre companies unafraid of gritty drama

Description Durban Dialogues, Indian Voice is an anthology of five engaging and eclectic South African plays by award-winning playwright Ashwin Singh. The plays selected, namely To House, Duped, Spice ‘n Stuff, Reoca Light and Beyond the Big Bangs represent the complete array of Singh’s storytelling skills in drama as well as satire. Each play reflects, in different ways, on the complexities and contradictions of life in post-Apartheid South Africa, and focuses particularly on people of Indian origin and their relationship with other South African communities. The plays present a moving portrait of a unique array of characters and are also punctuated by Singh’s trademark humour. Each one is set in Durban, South Africa’s third largest and most diverse city, and they are described by renowned academic and critic Betty Govinden as ‘undressing Durban, as they take us away from the neon lights and “candy floss” to the reality of the underbelly of post-Apartheid urban and suburban existence’.

Reviews ‘To House is an important piece of theatre; in it people voice opinions that are uncomfortable and edgy. The cathartic and therapeutic value of hearing these things said aloud in a public place is part of our essential healing process and proves, once again, that art has the ability to go where angels fear to tread.’ Daily News, Durban

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‘Ashwin Singh’s To House deals with alliances and conflicts between Black, White and Indian characters involved in a sectional title scheme… the intricate plot holds the attention’ Independent on Sunday

‘Singh’s beautifully crafted play is rich in humour and in sadness, peppered with witty one-liners and moving insights. Here is a microcosm of the endearing foibles and extraordinary resilience of a community under threat from all angles.’ ArtSmart, South Africa

Mr Thayalan Reddy, Dr Lesley Jacob and CG Vinod Kumar Sharma launching Durban Dialogues, Indian Voice at the Indian Cultural Centre, Durban (2013)

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Ashwin signing books for attendees whilst Dr Jacob, CG Sharma and programme director, Shantal Singh look on.

Key presenters in a group pose at the book launch.

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DURBAN DIALOGUES, INDIAN VOICE – FIVE SOUTH AFRICAN PLAYS

Sunday, 12 January 2014 19:09 By Ashwin Singh

Review by Devarakshanam Govinden

It was the Italian philosopher and organic intellectual, Antonio Gramsci, who stated with passion: “The crisis consists precisely of the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” After the euphoria of our own “spring” in 1994 in South Africa – when new political life and change began bursting with energy and promise all around us – we have become aware of a growing winter of discontent. Durban Dialogues, Ashwin Singh’s newly published collection of plays is indisputably about the warp and weft of the South African “interregnum”, our prolonged transition into a mature democracy [Some would say - lost in transition…]. Indeed, the plays expose us to the [morbid] symptoms of the present times, showing the way the old South Africa persists in different guises, of the way the New South Africa displays rather grotesque re-incarnations of the past.

The plays show that playwrights can also be sociologists and philosophers, as Ashwin Singh sharpens his observant and critical eye [and his pen], and provides us with what might be described as a “Spontaneous Sociology of the People” [from Burawoy 2011:216].

Edward Said, the Palestinian post-colonial critic, for his part, called such a disposition in a writer a “worldliness” – and he meant it in the best sense of the world - “a knowing and unafraid attitude towards exploring the world we live in”.

The plays do have a worldliness about them, in the sense that Edward Said suggests. They open up a broad window to the kaleidoscopic world around us - a world that constantly revolves and mutates, producing configurations and patterns before our very eyes, as we shift our vantage point.

And that world is especially a Durban world, with the plays set distinctively in Durban’s socio-cultural context, with all its idiosyncrasies and peculiarities in a wider South Africa. The legacy of separate residential living for different “population groups” is manifest in different ways in the contemporary era, and provides the social-cultural and economic background to the plays.

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THE INDIAN VOICE

The “Indian Voice” in the plays is an important, complex [even contested], voice, with Durban Dialogues following in the tradition developed by playwrights such as Ronnie Govender [Lahnee’s Pleasure and At the Edge] during the apartheid era when, for one, Indian patois was first put on stage. Ashwin shows the variety and diversity of this “voice” in a post-apartheid moment - away from one-dimensional stereotyping [as in Singh’s dramatic piece, “Who is an Indian Granny?”] - and of the way it intersects with class and race in multiple ways. And while there are characters in the plays which lapse into exoticism, ethnic chauvinism and ethnocentricity, and sometimes act as self-appointed cultural police, there are those who seek commonalities with their compatriots from different backgrounds.

Some of the plays [Reoca Light, for example], are set against the background of Indian indenture, which constitutes an important part of South African history [It is this history that prompted Mahatma Gandhi “to hone his political activism under the banner of satyagraha”;Bose 2009:4]. Slave and other labour economies are common to Indian and African diasporas in the main, but also relevant to Chinese history, among others.

Stories like Reoca Light belong to all who are keen to expand their sense of their South Africanness and, indeed, their wider humanity. As Bose, who critically surveys the breadth of plays of the Indian Diaspora, notes:

However alive the world of Bollywood globalization and Indian dance may be in South Africa, the identity of South African South Asians has been developed wholly on South African soil, via intimate relations with Afrikaans and Afrikaner culture, apartheid, and a specifically modern race consciousness in a world of South African blackness, whiteness, Colouredness, and Indianness. [Bose 2009:373]

Durban Dialogues, similar to other plays such as those noted above and Kessie Govender’s Working Class Hero, Kriben Pillay’s Waiting for Muruga, and Rajesh Gopie’s The Coolie Odyssey, among others, also broadens and deepens the oeuvre of plays in the Indian Diaspora, and well as inflecting it in a unique way. Alongside Bose’s statement, cited above, it is necessary to remember that the categories of identities are not “pure” discrete or homogenous, and that identities blur.

REDISCOVERING THE ORDINARY

The plays assist us in rediscovering the ordinary. One of our greatest South African scholars, Prof Njabulo Ndebele noted that what is really important in South African writing is not the depiction of the grand and spectacular [or spectacle], but the ordinary, the mundane, the everyday…

Indeed, Singh’s plays are grounded in everyday material reality, and deal with issues of survival, employment, poverty, changing lifestyle patterns [e.g. old family stores giving way to malls]; there are the familiar experiences of blue lights, trackers, the body corporate, black-market trading, changing circumstances through loss of livelihood, Facebook, etc; also references to modern popular culture such as SA Has Talent, Idols, and the like.

APARTHEID AND NEW DEMOCRACY

Crucially, we are reminded in Durban Dialogues of the way Apartheid values persist, of mindsets where you are sometimes judged in the world in terms of the colour of your skin [or your class] and

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not the content of your character [the more things change the more they remain the same!]

We are reminded that “All are equal but some are more equal than others”. We have to look, for example, at the references in the plays, to the partiality of the police, to appreciate that some people have adequate reason to believe this perception.

The plays show us that the fundamental values of our hard-won democracy are under siege, as crass consumerism and materialism rule the day, and class mobility becomes the driving values that sustain us and give us a sense of self-worth and identity.

But while we might bemoan this, reading the plays, and seeing the performances, we have to ask : What are we doing – we the people on the ground – to deepen our democracy? The plays draw attention to what is happening in our neighbourhoods, which may be described as “the backyard of the nation”. Some of our neighbourhoods have become war zones, with groups divided along old racial lines, or new lines of division, such as competitiveness between neighbours. They have become, not places of good neighbourliness, but of hostility or alienation. Robert Frost had written, ironically, that “Good fences make good neighbours.“

And waiting to be embraced just around the corner are new prejudices - towards those from the rest of Africa, or from China or the Indian Subcontinent.

The plays show that there is change, but not always the type of change we might have anticipated decades ago. The kitchen table is now not for rolling roti, but for rolling dice, in order to practise for the roulette table. “Enhanced freedoms” now include the right to have casinos dotting the landscape - something that would have been unthinkable in Calvinistic apartheid South Africa!

But the present popularity of casino culture is a “morbid symptom” of a deeper social malaise as, in the plays, we see that our aging generation take to gambling as a welcome escape from the oppressiveness and loneliness of home and family life.

WOMEN

The depiction of women is an important dimension of the play. We are reminded through the plays that while we are generally enjoying freedoms at a public, official level, so much of the oppressiveness of our society at present resides in the intimate and private spaces of our lives and homes.

Who would have thought that sexism is still not conquered in the new South Africa, with our great, most liberal Constitution that legislates unreservedly in favour of women’s rights. What the plays reveal, more sadly, is the discrimination meted out to women by other women. What happened to the many coalitions of solidarity and sisterhood against all barriers when we fought against apartheid?

HOPE

But Ashwin Singh is far from being an unrelenting pessimist. Our neighbourhoods are also places of great camaraderie. There are in the plays, also instances of sharing together, of laughing together and of finding new and unexpected solidarities.

In “Big Bangs”, we see the play ending with the young people coming together, in spite of their

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elders; we see common sense and love triumph. While the ethic of hospitality in its broadest sense may be under siege and facing betrayal, it takes the new generation to assume the redemptive mantle, and we are left with an overriding sense of hope.

In Reoca Light we celebrate the legacy of hope of resourcefulness, of the triumph of the human spirit [and of community spirit], that runs through the play, in the face of adversity, This proves true what Fanon had said: that “it is to this zone of occult instability where the people dwell that we must come” [“occult” means hidden, below the surface]. But Fanon does not stop there, he continues… “…it is there that our souls are crystallised and that our perceptions and our lives are transfused with light.”[183] [Reoca Light is a play, in my opinion, that achieves this]

DRAMATIC DEVICES

An interesting dramatic device that Ashwin Singh deploys in the plays is that of dramatic monologue, of stepping into the shoes of another character and depicting that character. On stage we admire the great versatility of the actors and the economy of the playwright. This dramatic technique of playing another character also has great comic value. There is a marvellous irony here, when a character dons an imaginary mask to become another, and, in the process, unmasks the persons she or he portrays! But, on a more significant level, we appreciate this gesture of “talking back” as an important way of claiming voice and agency. Given that so much social dialogue in real life – talk with others - entails a great deal of silencing and censoring, this transgressive device works effectively on stage.

This device confounds the separation of margin and centre, self and other. Those at the margins, take centre stage, literally and figuratively, colluding with the audience, to create an alternative interpretive community between actor and audience. Paradoxically, a character, playing another, or multiple subject positions, comes into his/her own, with performance within performance... Maids become madams in an instant, questioning authority figures from a safe, private space, holding them up for ridicule.

bell hooks, in her book, Talking Back, makes an interesting observation, which may be applicable here:

Moving from silence into speech is for the oppressed, the colonized, the exploited, and those who stand and struggle side by side a gesture of defiance that heals, that makes new life and new growth possible. It is that act of speech, of “talking back,” that is no mere gesture of empty words, that is the expression of our movement from object to subject – the liberated voice. [1989:9]

Further, there is an interesting concept in postcolonial discourse, which is displayed here, and that is called mimicry. While mimicry is about imitating, it may also be about imitating to poke fun at, to reverse the balance of power, by reversing the gaze, and express a culture of resistance.

THE SPACE OF THEATRE

The space of South African theatre has always been a robust, critical, potent, space.

Black theatre, in general, draws from a rich tradition of protest and resistance. Our pantheon of South African Playwrights such as ATHOL FUGARD, LEWIS NKOSI, MBONGENI NGEMA, RONNIE GOVENDER, MUTHAL NAIDOO, KESSIE GOVENDER, KRIBEN PILLAY among others, were, and are, indisputably part of our hallowed hall of fame [indeed, our lineage goes even beyond them to the

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likes of H I E DHLOMO and GIBSON KENTE, to name a few] – playwrights who shaped theatre, and who shaped society through theatre. Playwrights who have relentlessly exposed South African society to itself, and to the world.

Edward Said, citing Adorno, stated that a writer sets up house – writing becomes a place. This was especially necessary when we are looking for homes, places to reside, both literally and metaphorically. Writing also becomes this borderline…between life and living and our representation of it. Writers [playwrights included], throughout our history, and the world over, have done just that. In the apartheid era, theatre provided this alternative space and, in the present dispensation, serves a similar purpose

Ashwin Singh’s plays working in a contemporary idiom and style and context, become a place for us to set up house, to inhabit, a place filled with humour, compassion and insight. They categorically signal a disposition not to remain silent, not to remain indifferent, prompting us, and nudging us to make choices about how we live in our world.

CONCLUSION

Mandela, in his last speech to Parliament as the first president of a democratic South Africa, reminded us that “together, we must continue our efforts to turn our hopes into reality.”

And in the final lines of A Long Walk to Freedom: “I have walked the long walk to freedom…But I can rest only for a moment. For with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended” Indeed. The long walk to full and fulfilling freedom is long. The long walk continues. And projects like Durban Dialogues usher us on our way until, as our own beloved poet and patriot, Masis Kunene, would say…“…We dance to the limits of the universe…” [in Gunner:1994:144

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bose, Neliesh [ed]. 2009. Beyond Bollywood and Broadway – Plays from the South Asian Diaspora. Indiana University Press. Bloomington and Indianapolis.

Burawoy, Michael and Karl Von Holdt. 2012. Conversations with Bourdieu – The Johannesburg Moment. WUP: Johannesburg.

Govinden, D. 2013. “A Critical Overview. “In Singh, Ashwin. 2013. Durban Dialogues, Indian Voice – Five South African Plays . Aurora Metro Books: Twickenham.

Gramsci, Antonio. 1982. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Lawrence and Wishart.

Fanon, Franz. 1961/1965. The Wretched of the Earth. London: MacGibbon and Kee.

Gunner, Liz. [ed] 1994. Politics and Performance – Theatre, Poetry and Song in Southern Africa . WUP: Johannesburg.

hooks, bell. 1989. Talking Back – thinking feminist, thinking black. South End Press: Boston, MA.

Kunene, Masisi. 1982. The Ancestors and the Sacred Mountain. London.

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Said, W Edward. 1983. The World, the Text and the Critic. Harvard University Press Harvard.

Ashwin Singh’s award-winning plays have made an indelible impact on the Durban cultural landscape over the last decade. In recent times the playwright has acquired an international reputation, with his work having been staged in India and published in the UK. As a result of this and encouraged by enthusiastic colleagues, this year the Singh Siblings will present the first major international conference on Singh’s plays at the Playhouse, Durban. Entitled The 3-D Conference: Durban Dialogues Dissected, it will take place on Saturday, the 11th of June in the Playhouse Loft and will be attended by artists, academics, Drama and English students, cultural activists, politicians, literary critics and of course, the media. Directed by Shantal

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Singh, the programme will feature five papers presented by renowned South African and Indian academics as well as excerpts from Reoca Light and Beyond the Big Bangs performed by Ashwin Singh, Shona Johnson, Chantal Snyman and Annalisa Gxabu.

The five papers to be presented are:

1) Durban Dialogues, Indian Voice: A Critical Overview by Dr Betty Govinden (UKZN; Dept of English)

2) Creative Agency as Critique in the Durban Dialogues by Prof Priya Narismulu (UKZN; Dept of English)

3) Conflicts of Race and Gender: A Study of Plays by Ashwin Singh and Mahesh Dattani by Prof Pranav Joshipura (Mahila College, Gujarat, India; Dept of English)

4) Voicing Identity in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Ashwin Singh’s Durban Perspective by Ms Lee-Anne Naicker (DUT; Drama and Production Studies) and Prof Bett Pacey (TUT; Drama and Film Studies)

5) Ashwin Singh Egg or Chicken: A Writer/Director’s Recipe in Interviews and Analysis by Prof Deborah Lutge (DUT; Drama and Production Studies).

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Director Themi Venturas and Ashwin Singh clearly not on the same page!

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