Review by Nieshanka Nanthakrishnakumar
The Jungle and the Sea – a Remembrance and a Reminder
Belvoir
Canberra Theatre Centre
Theatre at its finest makes you feel something; theatre at its greatest makes you feel all the things. And that is exactly what Australian writers and directors S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack do in The Jungle and the Sea, a theatrical epic following their collaboration on the multi-award-winning Counting and Cracking.
The Jungle and the Sea is more than just theatre. It is a cultural experience that begins when you walk through Canberra Theatre Centre’s (CTC) foyer and are ceremoniously welcomed by garlands of faux marigold and a brass kuthu vilakku. And, in true South Asian hospitality, a stall serving classic Sri Lankan short eats – because being welcomed means being well-fed.
The play tells the story of the sacrifice, separation and survival of a Tamil family during the Sri Lankan Civil War and into present-day Australia, tracing their long journey towards reunion. Each family member, as they play the cards they have been dealt, is forced to interrogate their beliefs while protecting their dignity, in turn offering a different perspective on the conflict. Shakthidharan and Flack’s writing is striking in the way it honestly yet poetically portrays the suffering and resilience of Sri Lankan Tamils amid the destruction of their homeland, grounded in its rich cultural authenticity through allusions to texts such as the Mahabharata.
The Jungle and the Sea is led by a phenomenal cast. Anandavalli, who is a Bharatanatyam dancer and guru, innately possesses a dutiful demeanour, making her the perfect Gowrie, the matriarch of the story. Through her abhinaya – the facial and physical expressions of her dance – she performs the joys and pain of motherhood with a virtuosity that words alone cannot do justice. Kalieaswari Srinivasan, plays the incredibly convincing eldest daughter Abi, who bears the burden of responsibility for her family. Her haunting delivery brings the war-ravaged landscape of the North vividly before the audience.
Prakash Belawadi and Emma Harvie effortlessly play the doting yet vexed father-daughter duo Siva and Lakshmi and bring much-needed comedic relief to the storyline. Equally, Shiv Palekar, Nadie Kammallaweera, Dushan Philips and Rajan Velu should also be praised for their compelling performances, particularly their seamless transitions between complex characters and faultless accents.
In a tale that traverses across time and place, as the immigrant plight so often does, Dale Ferguson’s rotating stage is an ingenious device to physically represent the family’s journey and the constantly shifting distance between them. However, the stage, originally designed for its home at Belvoir’s Upstairs Theatre, at times feels misplaced in the proscenium of the CTC’s Playhouse, creating an unnatural spatial distance between the actors and the audience during otherwise intimate moments. Additionally, Damien Cooper’s liking for warm lighting, especially in the scenes set in Sri Lanka, creates a sepia-effect reminiscent of the way the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora often wistfully remember their homeland.
The magic of The Jungle and the Sea lies in its Carnatic live music, as Hari Sivanesan and Aswin Selvanathan bring to life Arjunan Puveendran’s melodic and commanding composition. The warm resonance of the veena, alongside the powerful percussion of the mridangam and the ghatam allows the play to deftly switch between its joyous and sombre tones. It is also crucial in viscerally evoking war time Sri Lanka, heightening the characters’ sense of fear and danger for the audience.
While The Jungle and the Sea for the Sri Lankan Tamil Australian audience is a remembrance of the sacrifice and resilience of their people, it is a reminder to the audience at large that we still live in a world where ‘no fire zones’ are devised to kill, governments mask war crimes as ‘order’, and the fight for political accountability is enduring.
