In paintings dating back to the 18th century, the Nayika (the heroine) can be seen with her Sakhi (her confidante). In ancient Tamil poetry, songs and dance forms such as Bharatanatyam, the cherished Sakhi – the friend, accomplice, and at times, the witness – is a catalyst for the heroine to wrestle with and ultimately to accept her truth.
It is thus fitting that in Nithya Nagarajan and Liv Satchell’s Nayika: A Dancing Girl, we meet our heroine (Vaishnavi Suryaprakash – Counting and Cracking) as she is reconnecting with her childhood best friend. Beginning with a meeting over over-priced entrees in Sydney, the story explores bursts of the forgotten joy and sorrow the pair shared in Chennai, India, over four formative years as our heroine learned about love, met a boy, began a relationship and ultimately escaped its perils with her own scars.
Satchell and Nagarajan’s script is moving, humorous and sensitive in its exploration of heartbreak and trauma.
With dramaturgy support from Nick Enright Prize winner S Shakthidaran (the creator of critically acclaimed works Counting and Cracking and The Jungle and the Sea), Satchell and Nagarajan’s script is moving, humorous and sensitive in its exploration of heartbreak and trauma. As the only actor on stage, Suryaprakash is a captivating performer – she utilises accents effectively to indicate shifts in time and place, and is infinitely expressive as a smitten 13-year-old, finding the giddy exasperation of love with ease.
On the violin, Bharavi Raman provides an evocative accompaniment to the show's darker themes – her interludes work seamlessly with Morgan Moroney’s lighting design and Keerthi Subramaniyam’s minimalist set design to create enclaves and shadows for our vulnerable heroine to share her secrets.
Interspersed with the storytelling are wisps of Bharatanatyam dance – Bha (Bhavam: expression)-Ra(Ragam: song)-Tha(Thalam: rhythm)-natyam(dance) – utilised to ruminate on the heroine’s key emotional milestones. Those who are not familiar with the artform may find sufficient novelty here to overlook its clunky integration with the script, but further development is required for the dance interludes to achieve the gravity of the scripted scenes. For an artform whose foundation is rhythm, Marco Cher-Gibard’s compositions are decidedly lacking in any – often leaving Suryaprakash with just the beating of her feet and sway of her hands to convey the hope, longing, submission, distress and destructive rage of the Nayika. Saved by the script (again) and her acting chops, she finds a way to connect it all. However, with a bit more work, these elements could be the shows beating heart.
With violence against women all too recently declared a national crisis by our Prime Minister, it has never been more important for us to share and understand stories of gendered and domestic abuse, in addition to the nuance of experiences amongst the South Asian diaspora.
This magnetising new presentation, part of Belvoir St Theatre’s eclectic 2024 Season, is an excellent prelude to the epic new staging of the acclaimed Counting and Cracking that is heading to Carriageworks from June 28.
CONTENT NOTE: Please be aware that Nayika: A Dancing Girl contains adult themes and mentions gendered violence including sexual assault. Includes coarse language, loud music, sudden loud sound, strobe lighting and blackout.
Nayika: A Dancing Girl is playing at Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills, until May 19, 2024. The Performance is 1 hour and 15 minutes long, with no interval. Tickets range from $39-$95 and you can snap them up over here.
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