KEY POINTS:
ON STAGE
What: Sammy: The Incredible Journey of Mahatma Gandhi
Where and when: SkyCity Theatre, Aug 31-Sep 1
After a brief visit to Auckland last year, India's Prime Time Theatre returns with an award-winning production which puts the nation's modern founding father centre stage.
Sammy: The Incredible
Journey of Mahatma Gandhi traces the transformation of Mohandas Gandhi - as he was known - from stumbling lawyer to shrewd politician and finally Mahatma, Sanskrit for "great soul".
Prime Time Theatre founder and Sammy director Lillette Dubey says the timing of the New Zealand visit is perfect, as this month marks India's 60th year of independence.
She feels Sammy has a special relevance given the continued threat of global terrorism.
"Gandhi is a universal figure who fascinates and intrigues," she says. "I find increasing numbers of people want to know more about him, especially in these times of consumerism and materialism and, sadly, terrorism.
"It is almost as if his story has a new potency and is far more relevant today. He is an example of what can be achieved by non-violent means when one has undaunting and fearless conviction."
Sammy has been performed in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Brussels, London, Dubai and the United States, and Dubey has plenty of tales to tell.
In Brussels, the Hindu dialogue was translated into English for the performance and screens put up on either side of the stage so the English could be translated into French and Flemish.
"I sat there thinking, 'is anyone here getting this?' but they gave us a standing ovation."
In Dubai, the cast and crew took time out to see local theatre. "When a community starts producing its own theatre, finding its own voice through the performing arts, then you know good things are happening. I think that is very exciting."
It has long been Dubey's mission to explore the Indian voice in English theatre and she is heartened by the opportunity to travel as far afield as New Zealand and Australia.
She believes Sammy appeals to audiences because it portrays Gandhi as a complex man, sometimes tempestuous and temperamental , sometimes doubting and uncertain.
As Dubey points out, one recent production about the Mahatma was Gandhi: My Father, about the breakdown of the relationship between Gandhi and his son, Harilal.
"It is a very human Gandhi we see. We create an almost surreal space, which allows us to break out of a linear narrative, by having two Gandhis who fall into discussions with one another.
"One is the ordinary man, Mohan, and the other is the Mahatma who provokes him, who makes him question his actions. It is a way to access Gandhi's inner voice because the aim was always to pull him out of history books and make him alive."
Playwright Partap Sharma spent years meticulously researching Gandhi's life and trying to write his script.
"I was at the home of my future wife in a village in Sussex when I sat down to start writing about Gandhi and all I could think of was how cliched the figure of Gandhi had become, almost cartoonish.
"I pictured a character on a pedestal and I heard his voice saying, 'I am the shadow of an actor'. I could not reconcile that sentence and I knew the simple thing was to eliminate it but I just felt it was somehow essential."
Sharma, a playwright, novelist, actor, documentary film-maker, commentator and author of four children's books, put aside his script and concentrated on other projects. Then he was asked by a German scholar with an interest in Gandhi to voice a documentary. Sharma said he had tried to write a play about the Mahatma but got nowhere.
"The gentleman asked to see the scenes I had written, so I showed him and he was quite complimentary and urged me to keep writing. I said I would try and when I sat down that evening, it suddenly came to me 18 years after my first attempts. I realised the play would be about Gandhi as an ordinary man, a human figure."
Sharma and Dubey believe this distinguishes the production from others such as Richard Attenborough's epic film Gandhi.
Sammy starts with Gandhi's political awakening in South Africa, where he pioneered "satyagraha", the resistance of tyranny through non-violent civil disobedience.
The play takes its name from the word "swami", which South Africans changed to Sammy and used as an insult to hurl at indentured Indian labourers.
"When Gandhi learnt this, he is said to have laughed because swami actually means guru. Gandhi said he would try to live up to the title."
SHARMA SEEKS OLD FRIEND
Life could have been very different for multi-talented Indian writer/actor Partap Sharma had a shipboard friendship been given the chance to blossom.
Sharma says he was delighted to hear his play Sammy: The Incredible Life of Mahatma Gandhi is touring New Zealand because he has long been fascinated with the country.
"When I was a boy of about 16, I sailed to South Africa. There was another teenager on board, a girl called Ansley from New Zealand, who regaled me with stories about her beautiful country.
"I had wonderful images of New Zealand, which remain with me. Ansley disembarked in Mombasa - I always thought her father was a hunter going into the wilderness - and my family carried on to Dar es Salaam.
"I never saw Ansley again. Had we disembarked at the same port, life may have been very different and a beautiful friendship, with a tinge of romance, may have become much more.
"If anyone knows who I am talking about, I would love to know what happened to her and how her life unfolded."
Sharma is unable to join Sammy's cast and crew on their visit here because of ill health.
