Punjabi-language theatre group offers pathway to pride for Park Ex immigrants
CBC
When Gurdeep Khinda moved from India to Montreal 30 years ago, he thought his dream of becoming an actor on stage was over. He was too busy navigating his new life and there weren't any theatre groups in the city catering to the Indian community at the time.
Decades later, he's booked the entire week off work to prepare for his upcoming performance on Saturday — when he'll embody Indian anti-colonial revolutionary, Udham Singh.
"This is my priority," said Khinda. "When I was a child I said, 'OK, one day I'm going to be on the stage.' Then some people say it's impossible. I say, 'OK … but I will make it possible.'"
He is part of a Punjabi-language theatre group, the Centre for Performing Arts, born out of the Parc-Extension neighbourhood and formed by husband and wife duo Gaurav and Nitu Sharma who both have professional careers in the theatre and movie industries.
Khinda attended one of their plays three years ago and immediately decided to sign up. This will be his second performance with the group.
"This is what I was looking for," he said.
Saturday's cast is composed of 20 immigrants from India, most of whom are first-time performers.
They're interpreting the play Ram Mohammad Singh Azad: The spirit of freedom at La Sala Rossa in the Mile End neighbourhood Saturday at 5 p.m. It will be subtitled in French and English.
Gaurav Sharma had the idea of introducing recent immigrants to the theatre space while he was giving workshops on workers' and tenants' rights as a community organizer with the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC).
He said he hopes that by embodying freedom fighters and learning about India's history of activism, the cast members will feel more confident to demand their own rights be respected in every aspect of life.
The play tells the story of Udham Singh, who on March 13, 1940, assassinated Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the former lieutenant-governor of Punjab, at the time a province of British India, to avenge the victims of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre 20 years earlier. That day, British troops opened fire on a crowd of unarmed Indian civilians who had gathered at a large enclosed garden.
British estimates set the death toll at 379 while others say upward of 1,000 people were massacred.
During his trial, Singh took the name Ram Mohammad Singh Azad to represent a unified India which, at the time, was struggling for independence. He was executed by hanging in 1940.
It's an important story Sharma, Khinda and other adults learned growing up in India. Khinda plays Singh when he was in London, where the assassination took place. Sharma plays the younger version of the character in India.
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