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CHITRA Royal George Theatre/Shaw Festival
By
Jun 27, 2022, 23:00
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Shaw Festival
Through October 8
CHITRA Royal George Theatre Shaw Festival

For decades, Canada has become ever more diverse, on the streets, in government, on stage and even in hockey rinks.
Now, it’s showing up in the choices of what goes on stage.
One of the Shaw Festival Lunchtime Theatre shows this season is “Chitra,” a story from Nobel Prize-winning Indian writer and nationalist Rabindranath Tagore.
The story will make you think of Greek theatre, with its interfering gods.
Chitra (Gabriella Sundar Singh) is the daughter of the king of Manipur, the first woman in line for the throne ever.
She glories in her manly dress and her war bow and her muscular arms.
The gods, Madana (Sanjay Talwar) and Vasanta (Taurian Teelucksingh) are watchful, from the top of their pyramid, highly visible in Anahita Dehbonehie’s colorf,ul costumes.
Then, Chitra meets a guy, the very manly celibate Arjuna (Andrew Lawrie), and she suddenly changes her views and decides to try out being a womanly woman, with a guy who is interested.
The gods have no problem.
So, Chitra shifts her dress to that of a woman and puts the moves on Arjuna.
He’s heard about the king’s daughter but doesn’t realize this glossy, glimmering young woman is that person and they start getting together in the evening.
The show is a mix of music, the story, Tagore’s feminism and a boy and a girl.
Director and choreographer Kimberley Rampersad move them around, accompanied by the four members of the Corps, dancing, gesturing, watching from behind the curtains as the boy and the girl romance and even carry candles to help tell the tale.
It’s a tale of a boy and a girl, although it isn’t clear exactly how old they are.
The costumes, the music, the social milieu are very different from the usual on the stages in Niagara-On-The-Lake, although the plays on the stages in Shaw town have evolved greatly from Christopher Newton to Jackie Maxwell to Tim Carroll, as have the audiences in town.
And, so has Canada.
We’re likely to see more of the theater and the stories of all of the people who make up modern Canada, as their descendants gradually take up all of the roles controlling theater and what goes on stage.
After all, if Mounties can wear Turbans, the progeny of New Canadians will see their stories on stage.
“Chitra” is worth seeing, although some sections of the script could use some language updating.

A.W.

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