A Brimful of Asha, written by Ravi Jain and his mother, Asha, is a play that I was familiar with before I saw it this past week at Festival Antigonish. I’ve been watching the play’s success play out in my Facebook feed since it was first conceived and staged at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto back in 2012. It’s not a play that I had expected to see staged here in Nova Scotia, but I am so delighted that it’s playing until August 2, 2019 in Antigonish.
The play is, at its core, a very candid and truthful conversation (or dispute) between a mother and her son about a very complex and important issue: marriage. Specifically, Asha thinks that at 27 years old Ravi is running out of time to get married, that this needs to be immediately remedied, and that it’s her and Ravi’s father’s responsibility to see him both married and settled. Ravi, on the other hand, is focused on growing his theatre company and establishing himself in his career. The disparity between them here is both generational and cultural. Asha was born and raised in India, she moved to Toronto after she got married, so she remains very rooted in her Indian culture, and this very much informs her views on marriage. Ravi, on the other hand, was born and raised in Toronto, so while he does have one foot firmly rooted in his Indian heritage, he is also unmistakably Canadian. The play tells the true story of Ravi and his best friend Andrew planning a tour of India and his parents deciding that this is the perfect time to try to arrange a marriage for him with a nice Indian girl. This eventually leads to Ravi’s relationship with Asha reaching a breaking point, and then coming to a really beautiful catharsis.
The play is usually performed by Ravi and Asha Jain themselves, which (I’m sure) creates an incredible sense of intimacy with the audience, as both attempt to clarify and justify their actions, words, and choices during that time in Ravi’s life. The real Asha isn’t an actor, so there must have been a real rawness in her performance that is impossible to exactly replicate. That being said, since Ravi and Asha have been performing this play all over the world since 2012, it’s quite possible the show is more “polished” now than it was during its initial run at the Tarragon. I was curious about how the play would translate in the hands of two actors (as is the case in this production in Antigonish); how would adding a layer of fiction over what had originally been non-fiction change the play? Matt Lacas and Ronica Sajnani do beautiful justice to Ravi and Asha and to their story. Even though the events were not rooted in their own lives, it felt very much like they were pouring out of their own hearts.
The play is set up like a debate, but it doesn’t feel like we are being encouraged to take any one side, instead, we are beautifully led to a deeper understanding of both perspectives, and thus we come out knowing more about the complexity of the relationship between Asha and Ravi, and how people maneuver between two very disparate cultures in their everyday lives. It’s a play that is very rooted in a specific time and place and in a specific family, but the humour and the heart is universal. The anxiety a parent feels at having a child grow up to be an actor, it seems, is cross-cultural. I learned quite a bit about the traditions of marriage in an Indian family, but mostly I was thoroughly entertained and very moved. Director Linda Moore does a great job in making the piece feel spontaneous and inviting; although we don’t take active part in the story’s telling, Lacas and Sajnani are speaking directly to us, we are the silent scene partners that Ravi and Asha are actively trying to connect with.
I wasn’t sure if A Brimful of Asha was going to work without Asha and Ravi Jain playing themselves, but, while I’m sure it does change the production, in the skilled hands of Matt Lacas and Ronica Sajnani this play has become something new and still remains a powerful and poignant piece of theatre that does really lovely justice to its creators.
A Brimful of Asha plays at the Bauer Theatre at Festival Antigonish (5051 Chapel Square, Antigonish) on select days at 8:00pm from now until August 2nd, 2019. For tickets please visit this website or phone 902.867.3333.
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