By: Andre Chumko

Justin Lewis is a playwright, director and co-founder of Indian Ink Theatre Company. With Jacob Rajan, who he co-founded the company with more than 25 years ago, their productions have won numerous awards including two Edinburgh Fringe Firsts and three Production of the Year Awards in New Zealand. In his work outside Indian Ink, Lewis has written seven professionally produced plays. He is a graduate of the John Bolton Theatre School and in 2008 he received a Kaupapa Oranga Award for his services to theatre. Under Indian Ink his works as director and co-writer include Guru of Chai, Mrs Krishnan’s Party, Paradise or the Impermanence of Ice Cream, Dirty Work and more. The Post sat down to chat with Lewis ahead of Guru of Chai’s return to Wellington next month…

Hi Justin! It’s exciting to have Guru of Chai return to the stage. Can you explain its premise to someone who’s never seen it before?

A slightly suspect guru promises to take away all your problems — guaranteed! It’s an impossible claim but for 80 minutes he does — with a story. Jacob Rajan is truly magical to watch as he shifts from a poor chaiwallah (tea seller) to an Indian policeman to a poet, a young woman who’s been abandoned at a train station and other great characters. I think of it as an intimate epic, a romantic thriller about a man who keeps his soul locked in a cage. It’s beautiful, funny, sad and true.

Where did you and Jacob get the inspiration to write Guru? Have you spent any time in India?

I’ve been to India three times. I spent most of my time in Kerala, where Jacob is from, but also spent some time in Mumbai, Bhopal and New Delhi. The inspiration for Kutisar, the central character in Guru, came from a man we met in Bali. Nyoman Sukerta taught us masked dance, loved cockfighting and longed for a Facebook page as a way to change his life. Then in Singapore I met a young man on a bridge who did magic tricks, told me my fortune and tried to scam me for all my money. Jacob found an folk tale called Punchkin about a man who keeps his soul in a cage and from this mix Guru was born.

Jacob has been described as one of the country’s finest thespians. What has it been like to work so closely alongside him?

I can’t quite believe that we’ve been working together for almost 30 years, the photos of our younger selves remind me of the time that has passed and how glorious youth is. But we have to keep changing and learning. I guess that’s one of the things about working together, we help one another with that process. We each have our strengths and weaknesses, we balance one another out and it’s been a remarkably easy relationship. Jacob’s very funny, gracious and generous – it’s been a joy working with him.

How would you describe the mark of a truly brilliant playwright?

It’s the tale but it’s also how it’s told. Great writing takes you into a new world, gives insight with emotion, tells its tale in a fresh way and stands up against time. I think with a truly brilliant playwright you don’t really notice the writing, instead you are immersed in the characters, the world, the story, the theatre of it.

Indian Ink’s Dirty Work and Mrs Krishnan’s Party also re-toured this year. How is the company able to make work that remains so relevant?

Well, there’s always a little bit of magic involved — not every show endures. Sometimes I look at a show being performed years after we made it and am amazed – how did we make that? We take time to make a show, at least two years from the time we first start dreaming about it to when it is first seen by an audience, and we keep refining the shows with the audience. Guru seemed perfect when we last performed it but we’ve made some small changes that have improved it for this season. The same thing happened with Dirty Work and Mrs Krishnan’s Party earlier this year. I think one of the key things is to start a new work with some good questions; how do you do a storytelling piece? What does it mean to keep your soul locked in a cage? A question will spark your imagination and pull you through. If you start with an answer it might be better to write an essay.

And finally, what’s something not many people know about you?

I spent half a year living in Venice and speak pretty good Italian. I was a tour guide in Basilica San Marco for a while – if you want to know about Byzantine mosaics, I’m your man.