Modern Times Stage Company & The Aga Khan Museum (in association with Theatre Artaud)/The Caged Bird Sings, written by Rouvan Silogix, Rafeh Mahmud and Ahad Lakhani, directed by Rafeh Mahmud, The Aga Khan Museum, closes June 26. Tickets here.
Modern Times Stage Company is one of Toronto’s more sophisticated theatre ventures. Their repertoire is generally profound and provocative, so it is not surprising that the world premiere of The Caged Bird Sings is vintage Modern Times.
In fact, if anything, the play is one of the most challenging that the company has ever presented, and the audience is left feeling both exhilarated and humbled at the same time, the former because the play is a grand adventure for the mind, the later because of the sheer scope of universal themes that the play embraces, and the many questions that it raises.
Modern Times artistic director Rouvan Silogix, along with Rafael Mahmud and Ahad Lakhani, wrote the original script, and talk about chutzpah, their intention was to produce a radical take on no less a personage than the revered 13th century Persian Sufi mystic and poet, none other than the hallowed Rumi himself.
The Masnavi is Rumi’s masterpiece and a cornerstone of Islamic literature. The spiritual poem, which covers six books and over 25,000 verses, is a primer, as it were, that teaches one how to reach the goal of being truly in love with God, or so my research tells me. The poem is a collection of stories and anecdotes with each designed to illustrate a moral.
Any writing inspired by Rumi is usually reverential, but not The Caged Bird Sings. Rather, the authors have used very contemporary dialogue and allusions, along with three very earthy characters, to explore the idea of freedom in its many guises. It is a play that is one giant metaphor about freeing the physical body, the mind and the soul to begin a spiritual journey. Not only is the style surreal, it borders on Theatre of the Absurd.
Waleed Ansari’s stunning set is an absolute marvel. In the Aga Khan Museum’s courtyard, he has placed a giant wooden cage containing two cots and scattered rugs, around which the audience sits on four sides. There we meet three prisoners who are confronted by past and present sins.
Jin (Navtej Sandhu) and Rumi (Mikaela Lily Davies) are two scientists who made buckets of money by selling their love potion which finally got them into serious trouble because it was made from the hearts of dead people. The two are also lovers, and their present predicament has strained their relationship. The third character, Sal (Rouvan Silogix), has been in the cage for a thousand years for a whole raft of crimes.
The structure of the play is comprised of a series of short scenes which the characters announce before hand, and which have wonderfully ironic titles like “Gin Rumi” or “Rumeo & Jiniet “or “Waiting for Godot’s Due Process”. Through these scenes, we find out the characters’ life and times. All this is leading up to who will find freedom, and who won’t. Who will release their hold on earthly pleasures to find the light and spirituality, and who will be left in the cage.
The acting is superb, and we really get to know these characters, warts and all. Kudos to director Rafael Mahmud who has done a splendid job in maneuvering three people around a tiny space in realistic fashion. Niloufar Zaiee’s clever costumes seem to cross periods which adds to the timeless quality of the piece. John Gzowski’s sound scape is suitably ethereal and menacing at the same time.
From an audience’s point of view, we are absolutely engaged by the characters and their existential dilemma, while we also try to come to grips with what it all means on the metaphysical level.
The Caged Bird Sings is a play that makes you think and question and dissect and unpack, which is, after all, the best kind of theatrical experience.
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