The Mustard Seed Art Company, led by its
Director, Isabel de Santa Rita Vaz, presented the
English play ‘Hold up the Sky’ at the Gomant Vidya
Niketan, Margao, on September 26, 2017. The play
has a Chinese setting and the original Chinese
beats and rhythms add a lot of joy and suspense to
a beautifully choreographed and directed musical
of sorts.
“The Mustard Seed Company turns 30 and
we’ve all evolved into different shapes and sizes,”
states Isabel on a lighter note, while addressing the
audience towards the end of the play along with
her entire cast and team.
‘Hold up the Sky’ is a story of Jian Ching
(Madame Mao), a young woman who discovers the
attractions of theatre and takes a journey in a 1930s
Chinese setting. She’s caught up in the climate
of political revolution while the theatre is used to
propagate the Cultural Revolution. Margao’s very
own Karishma Alvares plays the role of Madame
Mao, and as the plot involves a play within a play,
Karishma also plays a cameo as Nora.
Issues like mining and selling steel and
suppression of the right to freedom and expression
are clearly acted and narrated upon through
the play, throwing light on a China under the
Communist Comrades in the 1930s.
The play has original music composition from
Rui Lobo and his team of Gary Coutinho, Raju
Balnai, Dayesh Gaude, Chernol Medonca and
Aditi Mascarenhas. Well-known upcoming Goan
vocalists Kimberley Gomes, Lourdes Coutinho,
Mario Coelho, young Danica da Silva Pereira, Lara
Condillac and Lester D’Sousa lend their voices to
the music. The Rui Lobo led band plays the guitar,
French horn, trumpet, bass guitar, percussion,
glockenspiel, keyboards and clarinet that add a lot
of charm to the performance.
Commendable to note are the acting skills
of Ann Barreto Sousa, who plays the role of a
comrade who upholds the teachings and ways of
Chairman Mao. Chengdu, Peking, now known as
Beijing and Shanghai, is the setting of the play and
the Mandarin compositions and beats are simply
remarkable. Ann Barreto is also the brain behind
the costumes of the play, wherein a lot of India
fusion ethnic wear is crossed with a few Mandarin
designs.
A story of multiple plots of love, lust, enmity,
strife, poverty and oppression and jealousy, the
play evolves Madame Mao’s separation with her
husband, Tang Na, who was a theatre critic, and her
marriage to divorced Chairman Mao, besides her
continuous hate and rivalry with Li Yung and Li Yan.
An interesting stage act is the interaction
between Young Nah and Older Nah (played by
Chione Ribeiro and Kimberly Gomes, respectively)
along with Young Jin Ming and Older Jin Ming,
played by Aryan Bhobe and Lester D’Souza,
respectively.
The adaptation of ‘Hold up the Sky’ is
interesting to watch because it cuts between
song and dance with amazing choreography by
Annamarie Remedios and the dancers, including
Kay, Aryan, Chione, Ariedon, Kimberly, Suvarna,
Joshua, Ann and Vibhav.
‘Give me Freedom’, ‘It’s a long March’ and
‘Politics is a Game of Mahjong’, which are songs
by Maria Coelho, and ‘Hold up the Sky’ by Daphne
P de Souza Rui are little breathers in a play of
suspense, giving the production team a few
moments to flip curtains, changing to a different
city of China.
Isabel, who provides the original script and
direction, spoke of the journey of the Mustard See
Art Company and commended the Salesian priests
of Don Bosco Panjim who provide the Mustard
Seed Production a classroom in Panjim to practise
year after year. She also thanked the actors who
contribute their time and talent to the play. Isabel
also made a special mention of Kirit and Andrea
Maganlal of the Magson’s Group who sell tickets to
the play across their supermarkets.
The play came to a close with a whole lot of
audience applause, warming the hearts of the
actors and crew, who are now ready for an encore
at Institute Menezes Braganza, Panjim, today,
September 28, 2017 at at 6.30pm.
