Radio star tackles 10 roles in her one-woman play
THOSE who know her as the voice of “devious” Sunshine Mall radio-serial character Kareena on Lotus FM will get to see 10 other sides to Jayshree Parasuramen in her new play, Chats_Worth .
The Durban actress will appear in what she considers her most challenging role in a career of more than 20 years at the Pattundeen Theatre in Chatsworth, Durban, in April.
The play, co-written by Parasuramen and Verne Rowin Munsamy, was partly inspired by Goolam Vahed and Ashwin Desai’s 2013 book, Chatsworth: The Making of a South African Township.
For Parasuramen, creating the play was an expression of a lifelong interest in the stories of the place of her youth.
“My parents and grandparents were from the Magazine Barracks and they moved to Chatsworth. So, growing up, there were always stories from the Magazine Barracks and I was always interested in them,” she said.
Although the play was in many ways a tribute to the township, said the actress: “My writing now is not only about an Indian township — I’m celebrating a South African township.”
She and Munsamy had written characters one might find almost anywhere in the country, she said.
“It’s a one-woman production with 10 characters. The setup is in a museum and there’s a curator who introduces the characters. I’ve been working on it since the middle of last year.
“I’ve been getting stories from people in Chatsworth. I spoke to everyone — from a market lady who sells offal to a car guard. There’s characters from the book. There’s a prostitute, who is real, and the story of her life. There are young characters, middle-aged characters and there are also old ones.
“I spoke to so many people with such interesting stories that I wanted to write more characters, but I couldn’t. It was really difficult picking out the ones to use.”
Funds raised from staging the play will help to pay for a museum in Chatsworth as well as the youth centre and Aryan Benevolent Home.
“I’m hoping that prominent business people and the government could put up a museum in Chatsworth.
“The youth don’t know anything about, for instance, some of the great buildings there and how they got there.”
The play runs from April 4 to 20 and is being staged in association with Chatsworth’s Aryan Benevolent Homes and the Nelson Mandela Youth Centre, through which tickets are available for R60 each. Tickets are also available through 083-556-3237.