Heartbreaking and uplifting portrayal of slumdog dwellers shines

A Fine Balance comes to life with exquisite word pictures. Photo / Julie Zhu

The exuberant vitality of community theatre is abundantly demonstrated as Prayas Theatre launch a wildly ambitious production that condenses the vast sweep of Rohinton Mistry's much-loved novel into an intimate stage play.

Both heartbreaking and uplifting, the story immerses us in the abject poverty of slum dwellers struggling to maintain their dignity amid the turmoil of Indira Gandhi's suspension of democracy in the 1970s.

The script, devised by Britain's Tamasha Theatre, brilliantly illuminates the novel's complex dialectic in which the relentless accumulation of misfortune seems to engender compassion while hard-won success leads to alienation and hardening of the heart.

The production throws up haunting visual images created through puppetry and director Ahi Karunaharan evokes the politically charged turbulence of the period with sharply choreographed movement of a huge cast.

But it is in the art of story-telling that the drama really comes to life with exquisite word pictures conjuring up luminous portraits of the novel's unforgettable characters.

Mayen Mehta's vocal delivery is particularly well attuned to the poetic quality of the script and he holds the audience spell-bound with a fantastical description of tiny bonfires annihilating an infestation of head lice.

On occasions words are lost through unclear diction and excessive volume but emotion is conveyed with sparklingly clarity and the production has a mesmerising quality that makes the two-hour running time fly past.

Leela Patel expresses the independent spirit of an entrepreneur who blends steely determination with tender compassion while Mustaq Missouri embodies the grim endurance that finds strength in fatalistic stoicism.

Among the dazzling parade of minor characters, Amit Ohdedar chillingly articulates middle-class support for the horrors of enforced sterilisation while Raj Singh evokes the menacing authority of Beggar Master and Aamir Kapasi delivers a hilarious cameo as a peddler of potency medication.

Review

What: A Fine Balance
Where: Tapac, to October 18.