Today was a quieter day for the students after a big night travelling from London to Paris. They boarded the coach to see the final piece of theatre for the tour. Performed at the world famous Cartoucherie, ‘A Room in India’ by Theatre du Soleil was a political theatre masterpiece.
The students were incredibly lucky to see such a special show. All theatre people in Australia try to see this company live and travel year after year to their residence just outside Paris.
In Australia each year, 100’s of drama students watch the recorded plays of Theatre du Soleil (Theatre of the Sun) on video to learn Epic Theatre and write essays, analysing their performances. Very few get to see them live! They have been to Australia with a live show twice in 50 years.
‘A Room in India’ is political theatre and asks its audience - what is the purpose of theatre making in the current volatile political world situation? This is extremely relevant to all theatre, theatre makers and artists of any kind. The purpose is to instigate radical change in the attitude of the audience, towards the circumstances of other people. The play looked at the state of democracy, terrorism, war in Syria, refugees, rights of women under the harsh law of Saudi Arabia, the plight of children in war torn countries, the environment ... in other words everything relevant to life at the moment on earth! The play also addressed the loss of century old theatre traditions in Japan and in India. The great famous characters including Gandhi, Shakespeare and Chekov were ‘summoned’ from the dead to help humanity and theatre survive. The play was staged spectacularly, a visual representation with projection, puppets, singing, music, dancing, satire, physical theatre and slapstick comedy, combined also with magic, the live creation of weather and light conditions!
The show received six standing ovations and curtain calls from its audience.
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