Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
✭✭✭✩✩
by Anusree Roy, directed by Nigel Shawn Williams
Factory Theatre, Factory Theatre Mainspace, Toronto
March 3-27, 2011
Brothel #9 represents both a step forward and a step backward for Anusree Roy. On the one hand the playwright, whose fame grew from one-act, one-woman plays, has now written a full-length work requiring four actors. On the other hand, she has given up the fluidity that allowed her to transform from one character to the next for a very old-fashioned form of naturalistic dramaturgy.
The story follows Rekha (Pamela Sinha), a young South Asian woman who travels to Kolkata (formerly “Calcutta”) to work in a light bulb factory. Once there she is horrified to realize that her brother-in-law has sold her as a prostitute for Birbal (Ash Knight), the owner of a brothel. Jamuna (Anusree Roy), madame and sex worker, becomes jealous when clients begin requesting Rekha instead of her. The worst is when the district policeman Salaudin (Sanjay Talwar), formerly her most prized client, begins to fall in love with Rekha.
Jamuna and Rekha are the most rewarding roles. Roy depicts with great detail a woman whose cynicism has made her almost comically disgusting except for her underlying fear that age and loss of attractiveness will mean the end of her livelihood. Sinha’s character takes the greatest journey from fear and innocence to experience and defiance. Given the vital male character Roy created in Roshni just last year, it’s surprising to find that both male characters here are underwritten. We need to know what internal conflicts Birbal feels in managing a brothel while his wife is dying. We especially need to know more about Salaudin, the one Muslim character, and what conflicts he feels about falling for Rekha. We hear about his son, but nothing about his wife. Both Knight and Talwar make the most of what Roy has written, but we need to understand their actions much as the women’s.
Those not conversant with Hinduism will want to know the significance of Jamuna’s devotion to Mahakali (or “Great Kali”), the goddess of time, change and annihilation, pictured as garlanded with skulls and dancing on the body of her husband. Since Jamuna’s gift of the goddess’s portrait marks an important change in her character, we need more insight into its symbolism. Despite these lapses, Roy’s strong narrative gifts still shine through and hold us in suspense until the very end, where, unlike Roy’s previous plays, tragedy leads to resolve as well as resignation.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2011-03-04.
Photo: Anusree Roy and Pamela Sinha. ©Jeremy Mimnagh.
2011-03-04
Brothel #9