Settlers’ hurdles captured

Vignettes recall tensions faced by Indian community in their new homeland

The memories and hopes of New Zealand’s Indian community are offered up in a devised work by Prayas Theatre that speaks of the unresolved tensions which arise as connections to a homeland give way to a sense of belonging to a new country.

The ambitious sweep of the drama dances across time periods as it presents illuminating fragments of the immigrant experience.

Beginning with the arrival of Indian seamen in the early 19th century, the work takes in the trials of market gardeners in Pukekohe in the 1920s, present day students facing deportation and offers a stark reminder of the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers on the World War I battlefields of Gallipoli.

In these diverse stories the project shows evidence of an intensive workshopping process with Sananda Chatterjee and Ahi Karunaharan sharing the task of giving shape to input from the large cast. With so much material, there is perhaps a little too much reliance on reportage but the best moments have the messy, idiosyncratic quality of real, lived experience.

A pair of Mumbai housewives on a bush walk in Waipoua forest bring wry humour to their observations of Kiwi life and the formation of an Indian Women’s Group in the 1970s. We are able to feel the exasperation of Indian students caught between ever-changing residency regulations and corrupt immigration agents; an interview with a poetic 90-year-old potato farmer is neatly intercut with bickering between a community journalist and her laidback brother.

Director Karunaharan orchestrates some finely choreographed ensemble work that conveys a strong sense of physical presence while giving a structure to the diverse stories.