By: Bakchormeeboy

What happens after death? Perhaps just like ice cream – life itself also eventually melts away.

This May, the afterlife and everything in between gets explored in Singapore Theatre Company (STC) and Indian Ink’s sensational new play – Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream. Created by and starring New Zealand-based theatremaker Jacob Rajan, follow Kutisar on a fantastical journey after his death, as he tries to correct the mistakes of his past, trying to save the critically endangered vultures that play a vital role in Parsi sky burials.

With both a dash of Bollywood disco, fascinating death rituals, and an unforgettable vulture puppet, Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream promises plenty of laughs and a moving story sure to melt your heart. Returning to Singapore again after his last time here in 2012, we spoke to Jacob about the play, the continued partnership with STC in this fourth collaboration, and the concept of the afterlife. Read the interview in full below:

Bakchormeeboy: It’s been over a decade since you’ve last performed one of your shows in Singapore. What’s life been like in between for you, and how does it feel to be back at STC doing a new show?

Yes, it’s been far too long between pepper crabs for my liking. It’s fantastic to be bringing Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream to Singapore in particular since the show owes part of its title to a travel agent we happened to walk past in Little India called Paradise Tours. That was the original title in 2019. Obviously in the intervening years, along with the title, many things changed. The company turned 25, we created 5 more shows, we’ve been touring a lot in America and there was that pesky pandemic to contend with. I’m looking forward to catching up with our friends at STC, swapping stories and telling each other how great we look – hopefully over some pepper crab.

Bakchormeeboy: You’ve frequently produced one man shows – why is this your preferred style of theatre, and how did Paradise lead you to stretch yourself artistically compared to works such as Krishnan’s Dairy and Guru of Chai? 

What happens after death? Perhaps just like ice cream – life itself also eventually melts away.

This May, the afterlife and everything in between gets explored in Singapore Theatre Company (STC) and Indian Ink’s sensational new play – Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream. Created by and starring New Zealand-based theatremaker Jacob Rajan, follow Kutisar on a fantastical journey after his death, as he tries to correct the mistakes of his past, trying to save the critically endangered vultures that play a vital role in Parsi sky burials.

With both a dash of Bollywood disco, fascinating death rituals, and an unforgettable vulture puppet, Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream promises plenty of laughs and a moving story sure to melt your heart. Returning to Singapore again after his last time here in 2012, we spoke to Jacob about the play, the continued partnership with STC in this fourth collaboration, and the concept of the afterlife. Read the interview in full below:

Bakchormeeboy: It’s been over a decade since you’ve last performed one of your shows in Singapore. What’s life been like in between for you, and how does it feel to be back at STC doing a new show?

Yes, it’s been far too long between pepper crabs for my liking. It’s fantastic to be bringing Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream to Singapore in particular since the show owes part of its title to a travel agent we happened to walk past in Little India called Paradise Tours. That was the original title in 2019. Obviously in the intervening years, along with the title, many things changed. The company turned 25, we created 5 more shows, we’ve been touring a lot in America and there was that pesky pandemic to contend with. I’m looking forward to catching up with our friends at STC, swapping stories and telling each other how great we look – hopefully over some pepper crab.

Bakchormeeboy: You’ve frequently produced one man shows – why is this your preferred style of theatre, and how did Paradise lead you to stretch yourself artistically compared to works such as Krishnan’s Dairy and Guru of Chai? 

Jacob Rajan: I wouldn’t say one man shows are my preferred style of theatre but it’s clearly something Indian Ink has become very good at. Since we’re a touring company – creating shows that are nimble, imaginative, highly theatrical, pack a punch and give bang for buck –  the one-man model is very attractive. Paradise is not strictly a one man show since I share the stage with a life-sized vulture puppet operated by award winning puppeteer, Jon Coddington. The stretch for me artistically is to be good enough to wrest the audience’s attention away from that damn bird whenever it flies in!

Bakchormeeboy: How did the idea behind Paradise come about in the first place, and what in the world does it have to do with ice cream?

Jacob: We’d created a character named Kutisar who audiences may be familiar with from when we performed Guru of Chai in Singapore. This flawed, loveable, fool was such a hit that we thought it would be great to create a new show that brought Kutisar back. Paradise is the result. It takes our fool from the present, in Singapore, as a man approaching 60 and flips him back to the glory days of his past, in Mumbai, as a young man in his 20s and his tumultuous relationship with a passionate young woman who runs an ice cream shop.

Bakchormeeboy: Could we talk about the research process behind Paradise – especially when it comes to sky burials and the design of the central vulture puppet? Why was it so important to include the vulture as a character in puppet form?  

Jacob: We chanced upon the ritual of sky burials when we happened to be in Mumbai researching a completely unrelated project. The Parsi (an ethnic minority within India) community there have an unusual death practice. They lay their dead out in open-air towers (the Towers of Silence) for the vultures to eat. But what really drew us in was the discovery that the Parsis were in crisis. At a certain point it was noticed that the bodies in the Towers weren’t being eaten. The vultures had vanished. The mystery of their disappearance, not just in Mumbai but throughout India, fueled our research process and started our love affair with vultures. So, of course, we had to have one in the show.

Bakchormeeboy: How would you describe the New Zealand theatre and arts scene and what challenges you face there as an artist, especially in having sustained Indian Ink Theatre for over 25 years?

Jacob: From starting with a very colonial model that drew heavily from English traditions of theatre and art I think NZ has grown to challenge that narrative and draw more and more from the rich tapestry of art practices and cultural influences that make up our society. Our indigenous Māori culture plays a significant role in shaping the artistic landscape as does the Pasifika community. But there is now a growing recognition of Asian stories and perspectives that have been missing from the cultural conversation.

It’s a nation of 5 million people spread out across the land mass of the U.K., so financial sustainability, when operating a touring theatre company like Indian Ink, will always be a major challenge. Navigating the ever-changing landscape of technology and digital media is tricky too.   We rise to the challenges in the only way we know how – delivering shows that make people laugh and think and feel; shows that are beautiful, funny, sad and true; shows that celebrate difference but connect us through our shared humanity in the shared air of the theatre.

Bakchormeeboy: How different are your perspectives as a theatremaker compared to when you first started out? Does your world view change the way you perform or approach certain works, or the way you shape the characters you’ve written? 

Jacob: Justin (Indian Ink co-founder, director and co-writer ) and I often talk about how each show seems to reflect a genuine question we’re facing within our lives in the present moment. In that way, over 25 years now, the shows, at their core, have been a conversation between a couple of guys trying to figure out how to live a good life. Questions of finding love, the nature of happiness, facing your mortality are imbedded in the work. With each stage of life you go through – getting married, having children, losing loved ones – your perspective and questions can’t help but change and the characters and stories you’re interested can’t help but change too.

Bakchormeeboy: As an Indian person in New Zealand, how different is it performing there, especially with the audience reaction to certain cultural touchstones or references, compared to other countries you’ve toured productions to? 

Jacob: I was the first Indian to graduate from our national drama school. In a way I’ve never know any other way of creating and performing other than doing it with my own voice. The stories Indian Ink tell always connect on a human level first. The hopes and aspirations of human beings are far more similar than the current political climate would have many believe. Having said that, I certainly know when there are fellow Malayalis in the audience because of the response and recognition to those specific cultural touchstones but ultimately the themes are universal and resonate across cultures.

Bakchormeeboy: How do you maintain strong working relationships internationally, such as with STC?

Jacob: A lot of emails and a fair few Zooms! What’s great about STC is that it’s staged more Indian Ink shows than any other venue outside of New Zealand. There’s a level of trust there that makes the relationship strong.

Bakchormeeboy: What do you hope audiences take away or think about after watching Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream?

Jacob: Pulitzer Prize winning author, Ernest Becker’s book “Denial of Death” was a major influence on this work and in it the bitter medicine Becker prescribes – contemplation of the horror of our inevitable death – is, paradoxically, the tincture that adds sweetness to mortality. In that way, Paradise is a sort of meditation on what we do with the time we have left. I want it to be a life-affirming tincture for those who see it. One thing I guarantee – you’ll fall in love with the vulture.