Counting and Cracking at Birmingham Rep - Review

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Fri 19 Aug 2022 - Sat 27 Aug 2022

Spanning five decades and four generations of a family, Counting and Cracking is theatre on a grand scale. It weaves together the lives and experiences of numerous characters from a family home in Colombo in Sri Lanka in the 1950s to another family home in Sydney in 2004.

Written and directed by S Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack, the story is rooted in true life experiences which explains why the production feels so authentic and the characters so relatable. This drama may be set in other countries at other times but many of their relationships and quandaries can be experienced in a different way by us today.



The story begins light-heartedly in Sydney where college student Sid has been summoned by his mother Radha to scatter his grandmother's ashes in a river leading to the harbour. Sid is thoroughly Australian, he eschews his full name of Siddhartha, knows nothing of his family roots and is embarrassed by the ritual involved in the scattering of the ashes. But for his mother, these roots are the basis of her life. She may have escaped Sri Lanka but she remains Sri Lankan in Australia.

The event prompts Sid, played with a balance of humour and young person angst by Shiv Palekar, to begin questioning his family heritage. And when a phone call to the family brings the past hurtling back into the present, we are taken back in time to discover why his mother left her country – and the fates of the rest of his family.

Over three and a half hours with two intervals, we pass back and forth between different periods experiencing the disintegration of a country through the lives of one family. When we initially return to 1956, it is the day after Radha has been born and her future looks secure and bright. By the 1970s the country is slipping into division, unrest and violence and the young Radha has painful choices to make.

Vaishnavi Suryaprakash's young Radha is an idealist who, taught by her politician grandfather Apah, believes in love, justice and humanity. But over the course of the drama, we learn how this hopeful young woman has become the Radha in Sydney – a woman who has been forced to build a new life in another country.

Nadie Kammallaweer's older Radha is an inspired mix of humour and tragedy. Here is a woman who will argue with tradesmen and fundraisers and who will nag her son but she also carries her pain – both tangibly with a plastic box containing her grandfather's ashes which lies under her bed and emotionally by bottling up the past.

With a cast of 19 covering a host of roles across the different time periods it may be judged unfair to pick out any specific performances but Prakash Belawadi as Apah, Radha's grandfather back in Colombo in the past, is a towering figure. Not only is he one of his country's leaders who is prepared to be handcuffed to a chair and marched out of Parliament to prevent bloodshed but he is also head of the family. But his faith in his country and his people will be shaken to its core as Sri Lanka ruptures.

While the focus of the show is on Sri Lanka, its themes will resonate across all times and countries, raising questions about the meaning of home, identity, family, loyalty and how events outside our control can impact, and even destroy our lives. When characters are forced to flee their homeland, through the official visa channel and via refugee escape routes, we realise the Sri Lankan experience is, in many ways, universal and timeless.

With the subject matter so weighty the show needs its lighter moments and there are some ingenious touches provided not only by its writers but also in its set designed by Dale Ferguson. While much of the story takes place within the gated home of the family in Colombo and within the older Radha's Sydney apartment, the production makes good use of space with cast members sometimes speaking from across the auditorium. We are also taken swimming with a water slide temporarily taking centre stage.

Presented at Birmingham Rep as part of Birmingham 2022 Festival, Counting and Cracking features a range of languages including English, Tamil and Sinhalese, with fellow cast members translating into English.

Produced by Sydney-based Belvoir Theatre Company, Counting and Cracking won a host of awards when it was first performed in Australia. It plays only two venues in the UK, Edinburgh Festival and Birmingham which is a pity when the show has so much to say to British audiences.

At Birmingham Rep until August 27, for ticket information see www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

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!date 19/08/2022 -- 27/08/2022
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