By: Giles Wynn

Balloon Dog is a loose modern-day adaptation of Kabuliwala, a fictional tale from the 1890’s penned by one of India’s most celebrated authors, Rabindranath Tagore.

Presented by India Ink Theatre Company.

An Afghan fruit seller on his annual visit to West Bengal’s Kolkata has been replaced with a migrant night shift worker, Kabir, on his commute through a very nice street in a very nice suburb in Auckland whilst heading between his workplace (a petrol station) and the bus stop at either end of the day.

En route, he chances upon a gleefully inquisitive 5-year-old girl, Mini, playing in the front garden of her home, where she lives with her mother, Sara, and her grandfather, Ravi.

Across multiple encounters, these four characters, within the confines of this residence, explore a rich variety of themes that are consistent to the original text, but importantly, are themes that transcend time and universally delve into the human experience.

They are as nutritious as food and have been digested for centuries – love and separation, childhood and innocence, exile and alienation, dignity and justice, what it is to be a father to daughters, cultural contrast and what it is to be acutely present within any one moment.

Perhaps these are eternal considerations. Certainly, they were present within the penmanship of Tagore’s original work and served up today like an ancient grain regrown from within this season.
This is not a copy. It is, as it declares at the beginning, the same but different. Writers Justin Lewis (who is also the Director) and Jacob Rajan have taken these themes and woven them through multiple scenarios giving rise to them.

The writing is not structured like an essay, but fluid and fresh, like life. It displays an observational maturity with sincere care to both its craft and humanity. It does not proclaim, look at me, but suggests let us consider, involving the audience from the outset by asking the question, would you open your door to a stranger?

The question is prescribed, but the answer is not, as it lies within the listener willing to contemplate and coax the development of their own maturity.

Herein lies the greatest asset of Balloon Dog. Every element of the variety of artistic form offered combines to urge audience engagement. It does not suggest that you owe this mandate to yourself as much as it highlights how stagnation impacts those you share life with.

It implores the audience to think yet simultaneously entertains. It is a consistently complementary blended dichotomy of art forms.

Nothing stands out, yet everything stands out.
The rhythm stick synth score and live sound effects generated by David Ward from stage left as he acutely observed, anticipated and reacted to the specific timing of the players, is a clear case in point.

He was even drawn in as a character as the players occasionally involved him by opening a connection to him through the third wall.

His audio contribution was already evident, but at that moment he became the star of the show, yet he did not steal it. He passed it back to the players, as they continued to offer it to one another.

All three cast members, Jacob Rajan as the artist grandfather Ravi, Alisha Jacob as the single mother, Sara, and Jehangir Homavazir as the Gujarati migrant worker Kabir, resonated with the music to portray an intergenerational and cross-cultural slice of reality.

They broke into short interludes of choreographed dance, they passed the props from behind the curtains, they made small set alterations, they took on segments of narration and even briefly became puppeteers.

Additionally, they were given the responsibility of collectively portraying the fourth character, Mini, the 5-year-old girl whom the story hinges upon. Her intrigue and infectious desire to talk in detail of the world as she knows it, were accomplished largely through moments of unison as the cast left their own characters to literally embody the reactions of a little girl.

At no point was this confusing, but simply the demand to harness and deliver a skill, again reinforcing the notion that this production was not about any one person, but about a collective essence multi sensorially breathed into a theatre to transport an audience into their own culture, and offer them the opportunity to seek a deeper understanding of it.
Balloon Dog is a drama, a comedy and a tragedy. It is art realised by committed messengers of art. It is also a literal gift to a child containing another’s breath.

It is, like life, an inescapably transient moment, but undeniably one worth taking the time to experience.