Haresh Sharma
was commissioned in 2007 by Scotland's 7:84 Theatre Company to write
Eclipse as a 20-minute play for the company's Re:Union.
Re:Union was a staging of four meditations by four different
writers on the theme of separation, and for his contribution, Sharma
decided to explore the story of three generations of men in a family
which had been touched in different ways by the 1947 partition between
Pakistan and India. The monodrama with multiple parts played by one
actor was told from the viewpoint of a young gay Singaporean whose contemporary
lifestyle seems so different to him from that of his father's and grandfather's.
A reviewer for the British Theatre Guide applauded the play's "carefully
layered exposition" and how it was "deeply rooted in a sense of time
and place", but while all this could still be seen at the core of the
expanded version of Eclipse staged at the National Museum,
this reviewer regrets to say that the impact of the play was much too
diluted over a 60-minute running time.
The play explores themes of identity, legacy and what it means for
a place to truly be a home but there simply isn't enough there that
is really fresh or insightful to sustain an hour and so the play soon
finds itself treading water. I have never been a huge fan of Stella
Kon's Emily
of Emerald Hill but that play which, like Eclipse,
is also a family drama evoking a sense of lost history and culture,
did build momentum as it progressed - you had a sense that it was going
somewhere. Eclipse, on the other hand, often spirals within
itself. Multiple characters and storylines are introduced but none of
them is particularly memorable. In fact, at quite a few points in the
play, actor Umar Ahmed suddenly stops talking and engages in abstract
physical movements around the stage. Rather than intrigue or stimulate,
however, these transitions feel awkward and only make me conscious of
the fact that this restaging of Eclipse has that much more
stage time that needs to be filled.
In fact, it is not only time that needs filling but space as well.
I thought the use of broken crates as a motif while not exactly innovative
was effective in making a statement about creation from destruction.
What I had trouble with was that, with most of these crates at the back
of the stage, there was a vast amount of bare space (covered in sand
or, more appropriately, ash?) for Umar to move around in at the front
of the stage. The young actor was unfortunately often dwarfed by this
great emptiness and his running around onstage looked less like inspired
blocking and more like he was just trying to take up more room.
Essentially, the problem with Eclipse is that it lacks both
a strong authorial voice and a directorial one. Eclipse is
certainly one of Sharma's lesser works in terms of its ambition and
attention to detail. The structure, content and them of the narrative
hold few surprises and the lines are overly sentimental: where is the
intricate construction seen in Sharma's own recent Good
People? Another work Eclipse reminded me of was the
meandering For
The Pleasure Of Seeing Her Again. In both these plays, what
the story is about and what it wants to say seem to be more important
to the playwright than the craft of shaping how everything is actually
being said. Sharma with his recent successes is experiencing a well-deserved
renaissance but with that comes higher expectations as well, and Eclipse
just does not meet the mark now that the bar has been raised.
Likewise, I was also disappointed in the direction by 7:84's Jo Ronan.
Ronan is actually one of the founding members of The Necessary Stage
but left Singapore many years ago and is now based in Scotland. She
is certainly a competent director but I was surprised by how anonymous
Eclipse was, relying as it did on rather clichéd symbols
not only in the script but also in the various artistic choices she
made. One example was the choice of music and how it was used. Abruptly
cutting from a western pop/country song that Umar is singing to an Indian
one felt heavy-handed because it was such a literal representation of
the east-meets-west theme of the play.
To be fair, Umar, a Scotsman of Pakistani origin, gives the role his
best shot and delivers a creditable performance as son, father and grandfather
along with an assortment of neighbours and friends. He takes on the
multiple characters with great aplomb and despite putting in so much
energy and intensity into his performance, he makes everything look
so casual and effortless. He is clearly having a good time on stage,
especially when he is singing and dancing along to his iPod, and that
is always nice to see as an audience member. He may lack the master
craftsmanship and nuance of someone like, say, Ramesh Meyyappan but
he is not without talent and has charm and cheek to spare. His Scottish
accent confuses - I kept waiting for his Singaporean character to visit
Scotland by way of explanation - but otherwise, I think he was well
cast in the role.
All in all, I just never felt as if enough of the pieces in Eclipse
were falling into place and clicking. Eclipse was diverting
enough for 60 minutes but it had no real emotional impact on me. I left
that evening without any strong impressions of the production. I'm still
looking forward to The Necessary Stage's next play because this didn't
feel like one of theirs. Even taking into consideration the fact that
Eclipse was a collaboration, I'd have been hard-pressed to
have guessed the production was by TNS at all, lacking as it did the
company's trademark daring and inventiveness.
First Impression
Even considering that the play is a collaboration with Scottish company
7:84, I was surprised by how little of The Necessary Stage's daring
and inventiveness shine through in Eclipse. The 60-minute monodrama
shuffles along innocuously enough if you just sit back and let it run
its course. The story of a young Singaporean who returns to his father's
home country of Pakistan to spread his ashes is not without its charm
even if it is overly familiar in its scope and theme. However, I was
never fully engaged because I did not feel that the play had its own
theatrical voice. For a play about identity, Eclipse was oddly
anonymous; the artistic team relied too much on the safe and formulaic
in its creative choices, from the play's metaphors and motifs to its
music and sets. Another problem I had was that there were simply too
many characters being introduced within the very short running time.
It did not help that all of them were played by the same actor and that
none of them was written in a way that made them particularly memorable.
Scotsman Umar Ahmed did a good job of playing multiple parts but his
performance ultimately did not really have the magnetism to pull me
fully into the world of his narrative either.
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"Essentially, the problem with Eclipse is that it lacks
both a strong authorial voice and a directorial one"
Credits
Playwright: Haresh Sharma
Director: Jo Ronan
Technician: James Gardner
Cast: Umar Ahmed
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