Stepping in where others fear to tread, Gem Madhoo-Nascimento will produce and direct For the Love of Aidana Soraya, a play which probes the realms of interreligious marriage, at the National Cultural Centre next month.
The play, written by Guyanese Ronan Blaze, is described as a “tour de force” for Guyana’s theatre. It will premiere on May 14 in the Recital Hall and will be preceded by a cocktail reception. The play will then run from May 15 to 17 with performances at 4 pm and 8 pm.
According to a press release from Gem’s company, GEMS Theatre Productions, For the Love of Aidana Soraya confronts head-on, the ever present challenge of the doctrinaire teachings of two of Guyana’s major religions, the Hindu and Muslim faiths, as they impact, in a real life drama, on the lives of a family who have intermarried.
Every Guyanese, whether Hindu, Muslim or Christian, should see this intensely human drama, the release said.
The play delves into the frailty of human beings torn between their commitment to religious tradition and practice and their abiding love for each other and encourages us to reach beyond the religious and racial barriers which so frequently divide us as a people and a nation, the release said.
It features some of Guyana’s top actors: Richard Narine, Sonia Yarde, Ajay Baksh, Nazim Hussain, Dimple Mendonca, Rajan Tiwari, Michael Ignatius, Kirk Jardine, Sherry Ann Dyal, Howard Lorrimer, Godfrey Naughton, Derek Gomes and Zaheer Abbass.
Set in a fictitious small mixed Hindu, Christian and Muslim village called Elysee, somewhere in the countryside of Guyana, the play sees Jonathan (Baksh), who is Hindu, faced with the trauma of his young Muslim wife, Aidana Soraya (Mendonca) dying from an incurable cancer. He is determined to fulfil her wish to be buried in her family plot in the Islamic cemetery next to the village mosque. But the Hindu and Muslim communities have been hostile from the very beginning to the marriage and are opposed to her being buried in either cemetery. Jonathan’s Uncle, Sohrab (Narine), an elder of the Muslim community, who was once married to a Hindu whom he forced to become a Muslim and deeply regretted it after she died, passionately embraces Jonathan’s wishes and eloquently takes up his cause.
Imam Kassim (Tiwari) is reluctant to agree to the burial. Pandit Nehal (Abbass) is prepared to offer burial in the Hindu cemetery, but Hindu extremists in the village are violently opposed to any such idea.
Doctrine confronts reason. Accusations and threats fly fast and furious and in one of the most telling lines of the play, Sohrab declares “we are our own instruments of torture”.
Tickets cost $2,500 for the premiere and $1,200; $1,000 and $500 for the other performances. They are available at the National Cultural Centre, Nigel’s Supermarket and the City Mall.
