PLAY REVIEW

Picture a theatre full of students, a dark stage lit just by a blue light above. An elevated platform made out to be Flagstaff Station, complete with benches and yellow lines. You are now picturing the performance of 'Melbourne Talam'.

As Kew High School students, we travelled via tram to see  a play by Rashma N. Kalsie. We arrived just before 1 o’clock in the afternoon and shortly we, along with many other students and a few members of the public, were moved into one of the rooms at Southbank Theatre, The Lawler. We were among (mostly) VCE students as the Melbourne Theatre Company were putting on the play. It was my first time in this theatre and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I thought the exterior and interior of the theatre were very trendy and well put together. The staff were polite and added to the overall experience.

Melbourne Talam told the story of three Indians living in Melbourne. Their stories crossed paths on Flagstaff station as they waited for their trains and thought about their homes: Punjab, Delhi and Hyderabad. The characters are attempting to find their talam after moving to Australia. Talam is a term used in Indian music. In this play it referred to the rhythm of Melbourne. The characters, Jasminder Singh, Sonali Chugh and Poornachandra Rao, just could not seem to get Melbourne’s talam. As the play tells the story of the three people, a dramatic event changes all of them and their futures in Australia.

The play was easy to follow from my perspective having read the script prior to seeing it and I presume most people, having read the script or not, would find it easy to follow. The actors used freezes and slow motion movements, as well as stage lighting, to help you understand when there were flashbacks. However, most of the scenes were in chronological order.

Melbourne Talam explored many themes including identity and belonging, relationships and a character’s thoughts and feelings. Inner thoughts and feelings was one theme that I feel was explored really well, but at the same time, it was a bit overused. The characters talked to the audience a lot during the play and at times, it got repetitive. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the play. After reading the script, I wasn’t expecting much but the actors brought life and energy to the story line.

Having a train platform as the base of a stage is hard to pull off. ’The stage design was exceptional. Moving chairs made the stage easy to change between scenes and it helped the actors with seamless transitions from character to character. The excavators on the front and back of the set made movements interesting and added to how realistic the play looked. It also helped with scene changes and character changes. The acting was very strong. The three actors used props, voices and body posture to change characters and I thought this was effective. I felt that all three characters were equally engaging.

Lighting and sound were one of my favourite parts of the play. The sound and lights could intimate a train without us seeing a train; they could change the mood of a scene in an instant. Out of everything in the play, the set design and lighting was a standout for me.

Overall, I thought it was a well planned and delivered  a story line that was engaging. I thought the acting was exceptional, but having every character talking to the audience got a little boring. I rate it 3 and a half stars out of 5.

Anna Williams

Year 9