Rare of its kind, a play telling the first-generation migrant story within diaspora
A play written for the first-generation South Asian migrants, telling a story that relates to most of the diasporas in Australia is a rare theatrical phenomenon. Sonal Moore’s Ten Years to Home is a common story of an Indian couple Vasant and Rushi migrating to Australia, told rarely on Australian stage.
The storyline of this play is a simple autobiographical narrative of one of early Indian migrants to Australia in recent time i.e. post-independence of India. However, the simplicity of the play is enriched by the layers of events depicted in different timelines that gives the audience a bit of time travelling thrill and adds complexity to the otherwise linear narrative. It’s a story about leaving what is known to take a leap of faith to unknown, which all first-generation migrants can relate to.
Director Jules Orcullo has done an intelligent piece of work through minimalistic set design with just 5 boxes, each for an actor. The movement of the boxes within each scene was a clever approach to counter the monotony of a dialogue heavy play.
The intricacy of this play lies in the emotions and the nuances of depicting the warmth of the relationships. The actors Reema Gillani (Vasant) and Shabnam Tavakol (Sonal) brilliantly brought this out adding a different dimension to the play. Cypriana Singh (Radhika) and Ashlene Singh (EV) brought a well-deserved humorous touch throughout the play through their sisterly banters. Some of the scenes came across as less prepared than the others. Taufiq Sheikh as Rushi could have been more convincing. A full house audience overlooked some of the technical glitches on second day at Lennox auditorium in Riverside Theatre, Parramatta. Nautanki Theatre did a commendable job in producing this play that was well executed with a few bumps and touched a few hearts.
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