Silence review

The Rep, Birmingham

Malaka Chowdhury | Wednesday 24th April 2024 3:42am

Malaka Chowdhury at Silence at The Rep (Studio)

Silence runs from Wednesday 24 April- Saturday 27th April 

***** review 

SILENCE is a new play focused on communal storytelling, presenting shared history inspired by the remarkable personal testimonies of the people who lived through the last days of the British Raj in India. 

Adapted from Kavita Puri's acclaimed book Partition Voices: Untold British Stories, this original production was developed and directed for tour by Abdul Shayek, now adapted by director Iqbal Khan. It was commissioned to mark the 75th anniversary of the 1947 Partition of India, which saw 12 million people uprooted in the largest mass migration event of the 20th century. It was an event now forever marked by horrendous violence along religious lines, as the partition eventually resulted in three independent countries India, West Pakistan and East Pakistan, now modern-day Bangladesh. Witnesses to this brutal moment in time still live among us, yet their stories are often shrouded in silence. This play aimed to shine a light on a shared history that is often only found in dusty history books; this was brave, bold and powerful theatre at its best thanks to the talented team at Tara Theatre who delivered the performance of their lives. 

The subject matter is particularly personal for me, as my parents are first-generation Bangladeshi immigrants who came to Britain in the 1960s. My ancestors would certainly have been a part of this history, and I have often felt bereft at my own lack of knowledge. I didn't get to discuss these events with my grandparents who remained in Bangladesh before they died, which is always a source of regret. The British Empire and Partition was never taught at school, and it was up to my parents to teach me about my culture, my roots, even my mother tongue, Bengali. I was born and raised in Britain, but I will always be British-Bangladeshi, for the sake of all those people who lost their lives so I could live mine. I felt nervous all day in anticipation of this, but felt glad that these stories would be out there for everyone to know and hear and remember. 

It opens with engaged couple Irfan (Aaron Gill) and Zara (Tia Dutt) discussing the importance of understanding their Indian roots for the sake of their future children. Gill did. a brilliant job at expressing his yearning to connect with his roots, even learning to speak Punjabi. The pair ask their family members to commit their Partition experiences on videotape for posterity, and the direct speaking to the audience is a clever method of establishing a bond and taking us with them as they recount their turbulent memories. The cast were absolutely superb, playing multiple parts and often delivering monologues in the form of testimony. Alexandra D'sa, Asif Khan. Bhasker Patel and Mamta Kaash embodied the lives and pain of so many who had witnessed the atrocities, the fury of having their country divided up and their lives destroyed forever, first by the British Raj and then by their fellow countrymen-turned-enemy. They did a wonderful job at expressing the whole gamut of human emotion, seamlessly jumping between characters and devastations with ease. 

The play also emphasised the bonds of mutual friendship and support between different religious communities before the events of 1947 pitted friend against friend, neighbour against neighbour. Suddenly, if you were Muslim, Hindus were the enemy and vice versa. India became majority Hindu, and East Pakistan (before it gained independence as Bangladesh in 1971) became majority Muslim. The violence recounted ranged from murdered mothers and babies, angry mobs killing entire villages or demanding to know the religion of the men working the fields. Bloody bodies hanging out of trains trying to flee the country, dead bodies littering the streets or casually pushed away downstream by small children. Women also bore the brunt of violence, with kidnappings, widespread rape followed by mutilation and dismemberment, to then have their communities disown them for bringing 'shame' amongst them. Abortion was made legal, and this moment made me go cold. It is the female body that became the battleground for men, we were told, and it was a new heinous revelation amid the bloodshed. 

One standout moment was a grandfather explaining his close friendship with his neighbour in the morning, but that same friend had burned down the house down with his mother in it that same evening. He had also been stabbed in the arm, and regained consciousness to find himself buried under dead bodies. His daughter tells us it has been over fifty years since these events took place, yet he still has not overcome the trauma. He repeated the same phrase, 'I cannot understand, friends in the morning, to enemies in the evening!." It was powerful stuff. We hear about childhood friendships, a refugee couple who remain committed to preserving their culture, as a slow tapestry of life shattered unravels. 

"It is hard to believe in God when you have seen what I have seen." This line was spoken into the hush with terrible despair.

This was a tremendous play, handling the politically charged content with power and heart, but never forgetting the plea to protect our common humanity across religious and cultural Iines. The writers (Sonali Bhattacharyya, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Ishy Din and Alexandra Wood) are terrific, and it was a well-directed play with simple but effective props. Set designer Rachana Jadhav transformed a small space with screens and colour, and lighting designer Simeon Miller cast the stage in light and dark at appropriate moments. However, the original photos from that time should have taken centre stage, but were unfortunately half-covered by the screens. I was heartened to see a crowd of both young and old from all cultural backgrounds, sitting side by side to honour a shared chapter in modern multi-cultural Britain. 

The play only runs until Saturday, and I urge you to watch this urgent piece of thought-provoking theatre without delay. You won't regret it. 

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