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AIDANA SORAYA – a ‘tour de force’ for local theatre

May 02, 2009 News

GEMS Theatre Productions will stage ‘For Love of Aidana Soraya’ at the National Cultural Centre from May 14, next.
The play, by Guyanese Ronan Blaze, is a “tour de force” for Guyana’s theatre. It confronts head on, the ever-present challenge of the doctrinaire teachings of two of Guyana’s major religions, the Hindu and Muslim faiths, as they impact, in a real life drama, on the lives of a family who have intermarried.
Every Guyanese, whether Hindu, Muslim or Christian, should see this intensely human drama, the producer, Gem Madhoo-Nascimento has said.

The play delves into the frailty of human beings torn between their commitment to religious tradition and practice and their abiding love for each other and encourages people to reach beyond the religious and racial barriers, which so frequently divide people and nation.

The Play is also directed by Gem Madhoo-Nascimento and features the very best of Guyana’s actors, notably, Richard Narine, Sonya Yarde, Ajay Baksh, Nazim Hussain, Dimple Mendonca, Rajan Tiwari, Michael Ignatius, Kirk Jardine, Sherry Ann Dyal, Howard Lorrimer, Godfrey Naughton, Derek Gomes and Zaheer Abbass.
The Play is set in a small mixed Hindu, Christian and Muslim village called Elysee, existing in the author’s imagination, somewhere in the countryside of Guyana.
Jonathan, played by Ajay Baksh, who is Hindu, is faced with the trauma of his young Muslim wife, Aidana Soraya, played by Dimple Mendonca, who is dying of cancer and is determined to fulfill her wish to be buried in her family plot in the Islamic cemetery next to the village Mosque.

But both the Hindu and Muslim communities have been hostile from the very beginning, to the marriage and are opposed to her being buried in either the Muslim or Hindu cemeteries.
Jonathan’s Uncle, Sohrab, played by Richard Narine, an elder of the Muslim community and himself once married to a Hindu whom he forced to become a Muslim and has lived to deeply regret after she died, passionately embraces Jonathan’s wishes and eloquently takes up his cause.

Imam Kassim, played by Rajan Tiwari, is, however, reluctant, to agree to the burial, whereas, the Hindu Pandit, Nehal, played by Zaheer Abbass, is prepared to offer burial of Aidana Soraya in the Hindu cemetery. But the Hindu extremists in the village are ready to violently oppose any such idea.
Doctrine confronts reason. Accusations and threats fly fast and furious and in one of the most telling lines of the Play, Elder Sohrab declares, “we are our own instruments of torture”.
The Premiere performance will be preceded by a cocktail reception. Tickets are $2,500.

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