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4 NEWS SOUTH ASIAN OBSERVER
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2017

contd from page 1 Shaw Festival to see major
Capt.'s Push For Extradition

of 10 Punjabi-Canadians mounting of Sanskrit epic The

Creates Ripples in
Community Mahabharata from Why Not Theatre

The Congress government in Punjab has scaled up
its efforts for their extradition from Canada, but the hree decades after British director
efforts have been obstructed as the cases remain Peter Brook's version of the The
pending at various levels, he said. TMahabharata took the Western
According to an official spokesperson, the state theatre world by storm, Toronto's Why
government had decided to aggressively pursue the Not Theatre is teaming up with the Shaw
extradition of these suspects as their custodial Festival to create a major new stage
interrogation was vital to establish the entire chain of adaptation of the ancient Sanskrit epic
the drug cartel in Punjab and to expose those allegedly poem featuring a cast from the South
patronising the trade. Asian diaspora, The Globe and Mail has
Listing out details of these cases, the Punjab Chief learned.
Minister said Sarabjit Singh Sandhar, alias Nik, a Fuelled by a $375,000 New Chapter
resident of village Balioun in Samrala, now living in grant from the Canada Council, Why
Vancouver, had been declared a proclaimed offender Not's production will be the biggest ever
on October 19, 2013. mounted by the accomplished
His extradition request had been sent to Canadian independent theatre company - and will
authorities and thereafter prepared afresh as per premiere as part of the 2019 Shaw season
guidelines shared by them. The revised request was in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., before
sent to the Home Ministry, which forwarded it to the embarking on what is expected to be an
External Affairs Ministry on July 20, 2017. international tour.
The same is the status in another case, involving Why Not's artistic director Ravi Jain
Ranjit Singh Aujla, a resident of village Muthada and New York director Jenny Koons are
Kalan in Jalandhar district, in which the extradition co-directing the project - which will have through the special sesquicentennial production of French playwright Jean-
request is pending since July 25, 2017. He was declared an initial workshop this December with New Chapter program, the Shaw Claude Carrière's adaptation of The
a proclaimed offender in August 2013. a cast of nine in London, organized with Festival's new artistic director Tim Mahabharata that debuted at the
In the case of Nirankar Singh Dhillon of village the support of Complicité, the British Carroll approached Jain - whose hit Festival d'Avignon in 1985 has, as The
Apra Mandi in Jalandhar, who was declared a company run by acclaimed director productions as director include a Guardian's Mark Brown recently wrote,
proclaimed offender in October 2013, and is currently Simon McBurney. production of David French's Salt-Water "gone down in theatre history as one of
reported to be living in Lietkencher Circle Brampton, In India and throughout the South Moon that just concluded a run with the greatest … of all time." It toured for
Canada, the extradition request is pending since Asian diaspora, The Mahabharata's Mirvish Productions - independently to years, sometimes to theatres built
September 19, 2017, Amarinder said, citing police data. philosophy- and religion-filled tales of talk about possible projects and asked if specifically to host it.
The extradition request for Gursewak Singh the Kurukshetra War are extremely well- Jain had any interest in The But Brook's version also has been the
Dhillon, who was declared a proclaimed offender in known, Jain says - and the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Carroll quickly agreed to subject of a 30-year debate over its
April 2014, was sent to the External Affairs Ministry exists in myriad and evolving forms support Why Not's production and alleged cultural appropriation and
by the Home Ministry on July 20, 2017, but there has including Sikh and Jain Dharma premiere it as part of the Shaw Festival orientalism. In a 1988 essay arguing just
been no movement since then. versions. season. that, Indian director and critic Rustom
The chief minister in his letter cited similar cases "When I was kid, we grew up with Jain and Koons have assembled a Bharucha wrote that "The Mahabharata
of Amarjit Singh Kooner, Lamer Singh Daleh, Pardeep these stories in the house," says Jain, cross-border group of collaborators that is not merely a great narrative poem; it is
Singh Dhaliwal, Amarinder Singh Chheena, born and raised in Toronto, of the poem includes set designer Camellia Koo and our itihasa, the fundamental source of
Parminder Singh Deo and Ranjit Kaur Kahlon. - PTI that has been compared to ancient epics musician Gurpreet Chana from Toronto knowledge for our literature, dance,
The state government is aggressively pursuing the of Homer and Virgil in Western - as well as sound design Elisheba Ittoop painting, sculpture, theology, statecraft,
extradition of these suspects as their custodial literature but exists in forms about 10 and dramaturg Natasha Sinha from New sociology, ecology - in short, our history
interrogation is important to reveal the drug cartel times the length of The Odyssey and The York. But the exact form of the large- in all its detail and density."
and its patrons in the state, a spokesperson was Iliad combined. scale show they hope to build will only "Peter Brook is Peter Brook - and in a
reported as saying. "In India, there was a television series take shape over a series of international way, as a contemporary theatre creator,
The Congress government won the elections in [based on it] that the country would just workshops. you're always up against him," Jain says
February 2017 on their hard stand against the drug stop to watch. … My dad bought a set of Jain suggests, for instance, that the of the director who wrote the seminal
problem in the state. 100 DVDs," he says. final production may end up playing in theatre book The Empty Space. "The fear
A study conducted by the department of psychiatry "The challenge is how to create an multiple locations at the Shaw Festival - I have is less about him and that
at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education experience for people who have no perhaps partly on its main stage, partly production - and more about ensuring we
and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, and Indian experience with it and those who know it in its Studio Theatre and partly as a do this right, that we honour this story
Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, well." performance in the streets of Niagara- that means so much to so many people."
found that one in six Punjabis are addicted to Jain's interest with staging The on-the-Lake. Jain says that there is already interest
substance abuse. Mahabharata began when he and Koons, "In The Mahabharata, you have stories for tours in the United States and Britain
UNDERCOVER INDIAN: A a well-known Korean-American director, within stories - and the ways they're told - including producer Tim Nunn from the
worked together on a solo show based on
Tramway in Glasgow, a former tram
can be really different," Jain says. "We
Rising Star Bares Her Soul the Bhagavad Gita, a section of the epic just want to be flexible and look at shed that was transformed into a
that deals with Prince Arjuna, for the
different ways of sharing this with an
performance venue specifically to host
Pan Am Games in 2015. The two artists audience." Brook's production of The Mahabharata
on Stage were intrigued by its contemporary Both Jain and Koons know well that in 1988.
resonances to, for instance, the refugee they are following in illustrious footsteps "He's going to come see the workshop -
But the show is not just about Ankita's journey to crisis and climate change, and wanted to - having studied the 1989 film of the he's very excited about the idea of a
India. The reality of reverse culture shock, of seeing go further. Brook version when they were students South Asian diaspora cast, a different
Canada through a new set of eyes, is something that Coincidentally, while Why Not was together at New York University. perspective of this story," Jain says./
Ankita engages with in a witty and heartfelt manner. working on its grant proposal to do so The legendary director's nine-hour Courtesy: Globe and Mail
Through narration, music, dance and movement,
Ankita presents a witty and delicious peek under the
covers atan experience that many Canadians can WOMAN, 49, KILLED IN TWO-VEHICLE
relate to we but often keep hidden.
As you watch Undercover Indian, you will laugh,
and you will cry, and you will leave with a deep CRASH NEAR YORK UNIVERSITY
appreciation for the paradoxes and conundrums of
trying to find home in two very different places. 49-year-old woman is dead 31. "Currently the investigation is
Undercover Indian is being performed in Toronto following a two-vehicle crash A 49-year-old woman who was a ongoing. There's been no
between November 4-11, 2017 for 4 shows only. A at Steeles Avenue and Keele passenger in the Toyota was determination on charges," Stibbe
Tickets can be purchased at the door or at Street Tuesday night. pronounced dead on scene. The said. "It doesn't appear alcohol was a
www.soulo.ca/underoverindian. Toronto police Const. Clint Stibbe Toyota driver, a 55-year-old man, was factor in this collision."
AMRITA KUMAR-RATTA IS A LIFELONG LEARNER, A said an eastbound Toyota Camry taken to hospital with non-life- Witnesses to the crash are asked to
PASSIONATE TRAVELER, AN ADVOCATE FOR THE turning left onto north Keele and a threatening injuries. call police traffic services at 416-808-
ARTS, AND A SELF-PROCLAIMED TRANSNATIONAL westbound Mercedes-Benz collided The Mercedes-Benz driver, a 17- 1900 or Crime Stoppers anonymously
FEMINIST ACTIVIST. SHE IS ANKITA KUMAR-RATTA'S
ELDER SISTER. in the intersection at 10:23 p.m. Oct. year-old boy, wasn't hurt. at 416-222-TIPS (8477).