Wadham Chapel

Wednesday 25th-Saturday 28th November;   Wed, Thu and Sat at 7pm; Friday at 9pm

“The emotional resonance of the play is intense, and the audience is left feeling disconcerted and pensive as to the reflection of the production’s political savagery and quashing of the individual on the turbulent, current world situation.” Natasha Musto

Kalila Wa Dimna ★★★★★

Review by Natasha Musto

Taking on a production of Kalila wa Dimna is an ambitious feat. Named for the most influential book in the Arab world, with the exception of the Qur’an, the play examines the circumstances under which these animal fables came into creation, and found their fame as holding a mirror to the behaviour of the world’s kings and the Islamic system of justice. Set in Basra, Iraq, at the dawn of the Abbasid revolution and terrible conflict between the Muslims and the Persions, the play is preoccupied with themes of intolerance, fear, punishment and power, depicting the philosopher and author of Kalila Wa Dimna, Al-Muqaffa, in his struggles against racial and religious hatred, betrayal and the instability of the Arab world.

It was a striking decision to stage this play in the heart of Wadham Chapel; the intimacy and hallowed nature of the setting, emphasised by the production’s employment of well-crafted close lighting scenes and dispersal of candles, gave a heightened sense as to the significance of the interactions and seemingly personal choices made within the play. The repeated use of cold action, in placing the majority of battles and significant political events outside of the theatrical space, impressed upon the audience a great sense of the characters’ fear of the outside world. The dramatic echoing effect with which the Chapel tainted the actors’ voices also acted as a powerful medium through which central themes of the play, such as the danger of free speech, and the potential power of one man’s words to spread among the masses and influence their behaviour, were conveyed to the audience.

A problem created by the space however, was the tendency of the actors to underestimate the effect of the Chapel acoustics. Whilst a few slips in audibility might under some circumstances, be considered of no importance within a recognisably student performance, in a play with the implicit complexity of Kalila Wa Dimna, these intermittent but prolonged lapses in diction and audibility dishearten the audience and impede their response to the production. This was particularly the case in the opening scene, which confronts the audience mercilessly with an environment of exaggerated energy and movement, which results in breathless, rushing inaudibility in the cavernous echoing of the Chapel. This discouraging factor is compounded by the negligence of the scene’s staging, which, due to non-tiered seating, leaves the characters stranded in an audience blind spot. The ineffectiveness of this scene instils an initial dread among the audience as to the performance’s considerable length, but it must be acknowledged that it is a few introductory scenes before the play’s calibre and level of cohesion is markedly raised.

The play is a dramatic and engaging one, in which the level of suffering and conflict is refreshingly contrasted by the pleasing and unmistakeable thread of whimsy which teases its way into the edges of certain characters’ interactions. Equally, with the exception of rather disappointing performances in a couple of minor roles, the standard of acting is impressive, and the casting has achieved a excellent balance between the intensity and energy of the performers playing radical believers and political pretenders, and the natural passion and gentleness exhibited by the seer, and  the author,  Al-Muqaffa, a visionary in his own right.

The use of visual imagery and masks in the presentation of  Al-Muqaffa’s enacted fables, and the enforced perversions thereof, laces the characters with lasting metaphorical significance, and takes the audience’s experience of their interactions and relationship to their world to a new and emotive level. A particularly powerful image of the walls of the city burning, as a halo around God, represented by the central mosque and challenging palace, is enforced fiercely within the audience’s mind, by its staging and performance,  with Al-Muqaffa describing the scene to a blind partner.

The emotional resonance of the play is intense, and the audience is left feeling disconcerted and pensive as to the reflection of the production’s political savagery and quashing of the individual on the turbulent, current world situation. The overall impression of the play, however, is an empowering one, demonstrating that the individual can change the course of his world, albeit through personal suffering and sacrifice. The image spread of  Al-Muqaffa’s instructive fables causing rebellion by infiltrating society, seeping from the highest of General to the lowest of whores and engulfing everybody in between leaves the audience struck as to the significance of human interaction, and stunned as to its potential.