Trident Moon, by Anusree Roy and directed by Nina Lee Aquino opened at Crow’s Theatre on Friday night.  It’s set in 1947 during the Partition of India and concerns a bunch of women in the back of a truck seeking safety in what has become India.  Arun is a Hindu servant to a Moslem family.  Her boss, presumably to show he is not soft on Hindus, has beheaded her husband and sons.  In revenge she has shot him and kidnapped three of his women folk in the hope that they can be multiply raped by Hindu men when they reach “safety”.  The truck also contains her sister who has been accidentally, but seriously, wounded in the shooting, her retarded daughter and a box with the three heads.  The truck is driven by her brother.

(L to R back) Afroza Banu, Michelle Mohammed, Anusree Roy, Prerna Nehta, Zorana Sadiq, and Imali Prerera. (Front) Sahiba Arora and Sehar Bhojani

Along the way they pick up some other women with equally horrific stories and are then attacked by bandits who kill the brother but prove pretty useless when it comes to robbing or assaulting the women.  Rather weirdly one of the Moslem women is trusted to take over the driving though why Arun trusts her is not clear.  Eventually the sister dies and they reach India.  Along the way there’s a lot of violence, guns, expressions of sectarian hatred and graphic descriptions of sexual assault.

(L to R) Mirza Sarhan, Zorana Sadiq, Imali Perera, Afroza Banu, Muhaddisah, and Anusree Roy (front)

This being a play directed by Aquino and playing at Crow’s technical theatrical values are high.  The writing is tight, the acting convincing; with a very fine performance by Sahiba Arora as Arun, it flows and it has very effective lighting and sound design.  It’s all very professional but….

(L to R) Sahiba Arora, Zorana Sadiq, Sehar Bhojani, and Anusree Roy

Maybe if one knew nothing about Partition one would learn something but I’m not new to the subject.  I know how ghastly it was and that both displacements and deaths ran into many millions.  The scale was huge (one of the greatest migrations in all of human history).  The hatred is still alive eighty years later and is still used by governments for nefarious ends whether that’s the ongoing conflict in Kashmir, running battles in Brampton or the fact that tonight the Indian cricket team will play the final of a tournament hosted by Pakistan in Dubai because they still won’t cross the border.

(L to R) Zorana Sadiq, Sahiba Arora, Anusree Roy, Sehar Bhojani (lying down) Prerna Nehta, and Muhaddisah

I admire the technical excellence of Trident Moon but I didn’t enjoy it, or find it cathartic, or find it educational.  And I have never really bought into Stalin’s adage that one death is a tragedy but a million are a statistic.  Of course, your mileage may vary.

L to R: Sahiba Arora, Afroza Banu (standing), Zorana Sadiq, Michelle Mohammed, Prerna Nehta, Sehar Bhojani (lying down), Imali Perera (standing), Anusree Roy, and Muhaddisah

Trident Moon continues at Crow’s Theatre until March 30th.

Photo credits: Dahlia Katz