By: Charlie Underhill

Balloon Dog opens its door to an audience of strangers, and you should accept their invitation to step inside.

Indian Ink’s critically acclaimed creative team bring together a 21st Century New Zealand adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s classic 1892 Bengali short story Kabuliwalla, showing audiences that human nature truly transcends time and place by updating a 19th Century tale of paternal bond and friendship and shining a light on how this bond and these stories have processed over the last 120 years.

Jacob Rajan tells us in his programme note about when he joined a tour group in India, overhearing an Indian guide commenting on the outlandish claim that Shakespeare was the greatest writer who ever lived “In English maybe”. Indian Ink have provided an English translation of Kabuliwalla (link: https://indianink.co.nz/kabuliwala/) for audiences to read, and as while Rajan continues “There are songs, poems, stories and plays revered in languages English speakers will never be party to. Even when translated, something essential is lost”, it is always worth understanding where a story has come from in order to understand what the writer(s) wish to share with you. This reviewer recommends waiting until you have seen ‘Balloon Dog’ for yourself, before diving into the inspiration behind this adaptation.

Once settled into our seats, the audience is met with an elegant Set Design by John Verryt; functional with minimal trimmings, but the opportunity to create moments of big impact. No doubt alongside Assistant Designer Talia Pua, this design team have created a stage space that allows this cast to build the scenes with props on top of this set, grounding the action in the New Zealand Villa, and inviting us into this house to follow the family from their front gate, to the garden, to kitchen and beyond.

Costume design by Elizabeth Whiting paints a clear delineation between our characters living in the villa, and the stranger knocking at the door. Simple pieces that appear to have been designed to allow this cast to move freely and expertly are layered on and stripped away – it is natural, understated, and another tool for this cast to help fill in the blank spaces we do not need to see.

This ensemble cast of three are a delight, you can see that they are not only tuned into their characters and the place they inhabit in this world, but with each other. Jacob Rajan introduces the audience to a delightfully familiar character in the role of Ravi, a 57-year-old New Zealand Indian man whose personality feels familiar to anyone having grown up in this country. Rajan is always a delight to watch playing on stage, as a truly extraordinary character actor, seeing him inhabit and settle into this single role is refreshing, but not without Rajan’s signature talent shining through.

Alisha Jacob plays Sara, a young New Zealand Indian woman and mother to young daughter Mini. Jacob’s professional debut with Indian Ink is marked by her expressive physicality in this role, Sara is unwavering and a wonderfully four dimensional character in this adaptation of Trajore’s short story, and Jacob has established Sara as steadfast and complex in this role.

Jehangir Homavazir plays Kabir, a young migrant worker from Gujarat in India having travelled to New Zealand for better opportunities. Homavazir also enjoys a marvellous professional debut with Indian Ink in this role, holding and receiving the core tension of the show; any time Homavazir is on stage his presence assures the audience that what you see is what you get with Kabir, it is the rest of the ensemble that pushes and pulls on our understanding of this role.

The ensemble of performers is not limited to the three actors on this stage, as they are joined by Composer and Musician David Ward, an award-winning instrumentalist, improviser and composer for theatre and film who has collaborated with Indian Ink for over 20 years. Ward’s role is established in this piece as the lights come slowly up, performing music and sound live alongside these other performers, again providing a nuanced theatrical element with which to build the world around the cast.

This ensemble’s performance skills have been utilized to flesh out aspects of this world that the creative team have chosen not to incorporate as a physical aspect on stage. It is difficult to express the various delights these three have to offer without spoiling the magic in store, but rest assured these performers make use of the myriad of set, props, and sound composition tools at their disposal to make this a show you simply do not want to take your eyes off of. This is beautifully embellished with choreography by Jude Froude, expanding the physical modes of performance that the cast use to tell this story.

[SPOLIER]
Director Justin Lewis mentions in his programme note the choice to represent the character of Mini by connecting the ensemble trio as a chorus, as realising the character of 5-year-old Mini, no doubt a difficult task to approach for a professional theatre production. One could anticipate the use of hand-crafted puppetry, a key feature in many of Indian Ink’s repertoire of works, however as Lewis states best himself; “We found our answer in Tagore’s storyteller and created a chorus of storytellers. Mini lives inside them – just as our children live inside us.” We see again the talents of this ensemble cast as they transform to provide us with the never-ending chatters from Mini, seeing each cast member physically portray her in their own different moment, but connecting together through dialogue, was a delightful way to show the big personality of this 5 year old girl who sits at the heart of the play.
[END]

A seasoned audience member of Indian Ink’s theatrical offerings will walk into the theatre expecting to see a production of clever design, slick performances, and practical ‘theatre magic’.

This production does not rely on feeding you every physical aspect of the world you are watching, the creative team have made choices with casting, props, set, and sound in order to help its audience fill in the blanks. However, this ‘minimalist’ creative choice does not make an audience feel as if they must work to enter into this world, or that the world around these actors is secondary to the show that will unfold – audiences are being invited in to bring your own imaginations into play, and to jump into this story alongside them. ‘Balloon Dog’ opens its door to an audience of strangers, and you should accept their invitation to step inside.