Produced by Nisha and Michael Walling of Border Crossings Production and without a traditional stage, the performance of Toufann at the Africa Centre in London was quite an experience to feast one's eyes on the actors at close range, to watch and reflect on the intensity of their expressions, and assess the weight of their emotions in their articulation of the script. The slightest slip would have been observable but the actors are professionals with a solid background of dramatic performances, on stage and on television. The unusual performance setting generated a spirited ambience. For those without a foreknowledge of the play, it might have taken some time to understand what Toufann is all about. But while waiting for the plot to clutch in, the vitality of the script and the brio of the actors kept the audience tuned in. There was also the imaginative use of the modern accessories whereby the spectators were able to see video projection of some sequences like a ship being battered and shipwrecked by a mysterious cyclone (toufann). In a nutshell, Toufann is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, with a remote undertone of the Mauritian political spectrum. In the words of Martin Banham, the editor of the Cambridge Guide to Theatre, Dev Virahsawmy, “along with a range of other writers from the African continent have found in Shakespeare a vehicle to represent contemporary concerns and challenges”. Virahsawmy saw that Creole was “the most effective language for dramatic experiment” and “moving Shakespeare from English to Creole is moving an audience from a comfy elite minority to a popular majority. Virahsawmy also saw in Shakespeare a political playwright whose ideas are dynamic when dealing with the morality of power, the destructive forces of autocracy, the corruption of kings, the blight of civil war, the foolishness of petty tyrants and the vanity of man”.
The central character of Toufann is Prospero played by
Shaun Chawdhary whose recent appearances include playing Imran Khan in the murder of Stephen Lawrence (Granada)
and Ali in BBC's popular Eastenders. Prospero, the powerful but philosopher king, who spent his time writing,
reading and doing research in his laboratory, had left his brother Yago, the Prime Minister, with the
responsibility of running the country's affairs. Yago, hooked on power wanted more of its elixir. He joined
forces with Prince Edmon and King Lir to overthrow his brother through a military coup. In the mêlée
Prospero's wife was killed and Kordelia, their newly-born daughter, was spared. Both of them were put on a
“nutshell” of a boat in uncharted waters; they finally landed on an island and Prospero, the computer genius,
turned it into a paradise. The only inhabitants of the island were Kalibann and his mother Bangoya, a black slave
who was abandoned by a white pirate after he had fathered Kalibann, later to become Prospero's scientific
assistant. Prospero and his daughter Kordelia, beautifully played by Catherine Mobley, spent 20 years on the
island. Through patience, hard work and research, Prospero developed his science to have total control over
people and ... nature. Prospero was thus able to create a cyclone to trap the ship, which was carrying those who
had toppled him from his Throne.
“Time of revenge had come”, Prospero proclaimed, “they would now have to
face my Toufann, the instrument of my vengeance”. The passengers could not make any sense of the mysterious
cyclone, which appeared to have flown their ship across the island and landed on a mini-lake, with mountains
all around, and “a ship with no sea to sail”. Prince Ferdjinan, son of King Lir who had deposed Prospero, was
among the victims of the shipwreck, and while exploring the island, he was hypnotised by Aryel, a robot whose
creator was no other than Prospero, “the child of his science, the creature of his competence”. Aryel brought the
Prince to Prospero and Kordelia. The plan of Prospero was taking shape, he had decided that his daughter
Kordelia would eventually marry Prince Ferdjinan to reconquer the lost kingdom. The world of Prospero's
enemies was in disarray. King Lir had decided to abdicate. They finally clubbed together to install Kordelia as
Queen. But the crucial part of Prospero's plan fell apart when his daughter Kordelia revealed that she would
marry Kalibann, not the Prince. “But Kalibann has no Royal blood”, Prospero screamed out to her. “It is enough
for me that he has a human blood”, replied Kordelia. Prospero, resigned himself. He threw the key into the sea
and, with it, went his magical powers. Kordelia and Kalibann's reign began, new king, new problems! Mari sa!
Michael Walling confessed his difficulty to find an English equivalent word for the popular Creole expression
“Mari sa” popularly used in Mauritius. So he left it in the script, untranslated. In fact, “Mari” is a bullet of a
word containing many compressed words. “Mari content”, “mari bon”, “mari joli”, “mari en colere” ... take your
pick, and “mari” will provide you with the right stick of expressing your feelings, your joy or even your tears.
Nisha and Michael Walling of Border Crossings Production, London, felt the inner calling of bringing Toufann on
the London stage after their close connection with Mauritius following the production of musical and drama
plays.
They turned to Toufann, and took up the difficult task of translating the Creole script into English.
More than a dozen representations of Toufann were held during the months of November and December 1999, at
the Africa Centre in London. The English rendering of Toufann is quite electrifying. The script streams
smoothly, the actors well wrapped up in their respective characters. It was so good a performance that, at the
end, there was a yearning to read, for the sake of comparison, the original Creole version.
The Africa Centre, in the heart of the lively theaterland of London Convent Garden, does not offer a conventional
stage for the performance of plays, the first surprise for an unprepared audience. With no stage, the actors
perform at floor level in the centre of the hall, with the spectators, seated on both sides.
Toufann (Hindi for cyclone) had its premiere in Mauritius at Rose Hill's Plaza in 1995.
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