. Woman between two wor

East and West collide in Jan Derbyshire’s Maharani and the Maple Leaf

a .
photo submitted

The mysterious East meets the confusing West inside actrees Veena Sood's head. Jan Derbyshire's
play Maharani and the Maple Leaf at the Firehall Arts Centre is both spirited and spiritual.

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Wednesday, October 21, 1992 — North Shore News - 33

Maharani and the Maple Leaf
by Jan Derbyshire, directed by
Donna Spencer. At the Firchall
Arts Centre to Nov. 8. infor-
mation and reservations: 689
0926.

EE THIS show, but

don’t sit in the front

row unless you enjoy
improv theatre!

I made an unplanned and un-
comfortable guest appearance in
Maharani and the Maple Leaf after
slipping belatedly and
unobstrusively {I hoped) into a va-
cant front-row seat and then mak-
ing the mistake of fidgeting when
actress Veena Sood was looking
for a volunteer.

Sood plays Sushil Swanee,
whase basic (earthy) self is at war
with her passionate (fiery) alter
ego, Sheila Swan, while her (airy)
guru Maharani attempts to achieve
harmony and balance.

The fact that this war between a
traditional eastern heritage and
western opportunism rages inside
Swanee’s head allows much
humor as Sood creates her own
alter egos, not to mention her
grandmother, and leaps effortlessly
from character to character
without missing a beat.

Sushil’s paralysing uncertainty of
identity confusion climaxes at an
almost surreal audition of stereo-
types where she ig asked to play a
petite East Indian and host a tele-
vision talk show for pre-yuppies
called “1 Don’t Even Have A Car,
Ma.”

Having chosen her emergency
guest (me!), Sood was not the least
thrown when she learned that
what | was writing was a review of
her show.

“ll have to be extra good
then,” said Sood the actress to her
audience and Sushil the actress to
her casting director.

But on learning that my ambi-
tion in life is that of theatre direc-
ting, my multiple host asked me to
suggest one direction to improve
the show.

“Don’t block your first im-
pulse,’ my director-self advised
me quickly.

“More honesty,’’ came the

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ids

Martin Millerchip
THEATRE REVIEW

unbidden analytical voice of my
writer-self.

“Great! Give the actress the big
destructive note right in the mid-
dle of her performance,”
responded Mr. Director.

“It’s not an acting note, it’s a
writing note,” justified Mr. Critic.

“ve drawn a complete blank,

1 don’t know what to say,”’ my
synthetic self lied smilingly.

‘In that case the show must be
a complete success,”’ crowed
Sushi!/Sood smoothly,

Well almost, but not quite.

The second act, added since a
successful incarnation at the Fr-
inge Festival two years ago, went a
long way to answering my request
for more honesty.

Sood debates with author Jan
Derbyshire the meaning of the first .
act and whether Sushii sells out by
playing her stereotype.

Derbyshire also has Sood talk to
her director about the technique
of “her” performance thus
reminding the audience that
‘behind the story of Sushil’s strug-
gle for harmony is the story of
Sood’s struggle for perfection and
Derbyshire’s struggle for
enlightenment.

In some ways i preferred the se-
cond act for its wit and intellect-as
opposed to the sometimes pushed
humor of the first, but | wondered
how accessible some of the theat-
rical symbols are to a general au-
dience.

For instance: the cyclical nature
of Beckett's Waiting For Godot
and the sutfering played out
therein parallels perfectly the

Hindu view that the cycle of birth,
death and rebirth is sutfering
because life in this world implies
separation from the divine.
See Working page 36

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