GRAMMA

It’s only in the realm of fiction that the past and the present can be made to coexist. Both on the screen and on the stage, interspersing of the past and the present compels the audience to willingly suspend disbelief and, when the playwright and/or the director gets it right, this commingling of time and space creates incredibly poignancy that is heartwarming.

As GRAMMA, the latest offering by Sawitri Theatre Group reached its climax, I was disappointed that the play would end soon. Yes, the grandmother had passed away, but, I argued with myself, the play could’ve gone on for a bit with by switching over to the story Samantha and Raj. In these two characters, playwright Jasmine Sawant created characters that were endearing in their youthful innocence.

And as far as I could tell, they couldn’t have been part of the original memoir. 

The play is based on Dr. Jane Fraser’s memoir of her grandmother Lillie Carberry (1865-1949), and Jasmine makes it relevant to our times by incorporating characters in the present. Adopting an Indian theatre tradition of having a narrator (sutradhar), Jasmine turns Samantha and Raj into narrators of the story of the eponymous GRAMMA’s life.

Lillie’s story epitomises the lives of Canadian women and families living in Mississauga from mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. But she's not the docile and domesticated archetypal woman of her times. Lillie's an independent woman with a steely determination to do whatever she wants to do. Out of necessity, such strong-willed people (and especially women) lead a life that to others may seem lonely but that's not so. They prefer their solitude without feeling lonely. Lillie’s best pals are trees outside her the many homes that she lives during her lifetime.

The gradually changing dynamics of human relations between all the characters are evocatively portrayed and the witty and perceptive exchanges between Lillie and her daughter and her mother make the characters come alive. Lillie’s relationship with her mother and daughter also reveals her deceptively dominant (and manipulative) nature, all of which is conveyed in a few pithy lines. Her late marriage and relatively early widowhood strengthen her character even more.  The loss of her babies makes her a hard woman, who has learnt that it's only she who can adequately console herself to overcome her immense losses. 

Lillie's an intelligent woman with strong opinions on worldly matters; she doesn’t mince her words expressing unconventional views such as the futility of war. She lives through two World Wars. Jasmine makes that early 20th century period relevant to present times and makes a strong political statement by including in the narrative the contribution of Indian armed forces (then part of the British colonial army) to the war efforts. Although it’s a part of prattle between Samantha and Raj, it underscores the fact that this contribution has never been adequately acknowledged (the latest example is Nolan’s Dunkirk).

The material progress ushered in through technology that the Canadian society experiences in the early 20th century (such as the telephone and the automobile) and the growth of urbanisation in Mississauga (localities such as Derry Road and Meadowvale) in particular and the Peel region in general personalises the play for the local audience, nearly all of whom would’ve been familiar with the geography.  

Both Sawitri Theatre Group and Jasmine need to be acknowledged for producing a play that is as Canadian as it can ever be. It's a welcome departure from what the group's been doing in the past few years. I’m sure this is the first of many such efforts to follow. 

Credits:

GRAMMA's author - Dr. Jane Fraser

Playwright - Jasmine Sawant

Director - Christina Collins

Producer - Nitin Sawant

Production Design - Joseph Pagnan

Sound Design - Christina Collins & Sid Sawant

Costume Design - Shruti Shah

Projection Design - Nitin Sawant

Choreography - Akhila Jog, Shruti Shah & Raina Desai

Cast:

Lillie Carberry / Little Brown - Amy Osborne

Samantha Fraser - Ivana Bittnerova

Raj Nilan - Carlos Felipe Martinez

Isabelle Carberry & Grace Brown / Grace Emerson - Lucy Winkle

Henry Brown & Luther Emerson & Rag and Bones Man & Janitor - Jesse Anderson

Makeup - Akhila Jog

Stage Manager - Jeremy Pearson

Technical Director - Keyoor Shah

Production Assistant, Props & Wardrobe - Raina Desai

Makeup Assistant & Wardrobe - Forrest Jamie

Assistant to Stage Manager - Devansh Shah

Set Build - Keyoor Shah & Nitin Sawant

Marketing & Administration - Jasmine Sawant

Postcard & Cover Design - Arti Bakhle

House Program - Shamy Kaul

Period Costumes / Props - Courtesy Heritage Mississauga

Antique piano and table - Carol Ambrault

Antique chair - David Huband

Piano Tuning - David Patterson

Rocking chair - Emma Ryan