The 1947 partition of India saw millions uprooted and resulted in unspeakable violence. The partition resulted in the formation of three countries: India, West Pakistan and East Pakistan – now Pakistan and Bangladesh. It would also shape modern Britain. Witnesses to this brutal moment in history live among us, yet the stories of that time remain shrouded in silence.

SILENCE is a new play focused on communal storytelling – presenting a shared history inspired by the remarkable personal testimonies of people who lived through the last days of the British Raj. Commissioned to mark the 75th anniversary of partition, SILENCE is adapted from Kavita Puri’s acclaimed book Partition Voices: Untold British Stories and was originally co-produced with the Donmar Warehouse.

I hadn’t heard the term ‘docu-theatre’, before seeing it amongst the accolades (Time Out) for this production in the promotional material. I understand it as a genre as have seen many a piece of theatre that would come under this banner, I guess I’d never considered that this is what it is.

Why am I giving so much thought to what I’m sure is common parlance in the theatre world, between creators and consumer? Docu-drama is a popular way of sharing stories, real-life depictions and bringing the past to life in television and film. Actors bringing to life documented accounts – some word for word, some rewritten, some actually imagined based on research, all designed to provide an effective human perspective to information otherwise left on the dry pages of a history book.

Silence, based on Kavita Puri’s book ‘Partition Voices: Untold British Stories, and written by Sonali Bhattacharyya, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Ishy Din and Alexandra Wood, is indeed, docu-theatre, but an astounding piece of docu-theatre.

The testimonies and stories of those who lived and witnessed first hand the brutal atrocities through Partition, are brought to the stage not only by an incredible cast who had clearly not simply learnt their lines, but absorbed them, morphing into their originators.

But what is theatre if not this? Isn’t that the point?

Yes, but there are levels, and Silence takes it to one of incredible discomfort in the audience member – art is subjective and there to make you feel. Whatever that feeling may be. And felt I did. Shock, sorrow, anger, shame (shame that my knowledge of this chapter of history clearly wasn’t as developed as it could have been, given the aforementioned shock).

But the execution of these accounts are not just brought to life by the acting of our cast, but in brilliantly varied and imaginatively executed ways of bringing them to the stage.

We have depictions of third generations seeking out and gathering together their ‘primary evidence’ (yes that A in history lives on in me…), interrogating pictures long placed into a biscuit tin, which add layers of understanding and depth to a sketchily known facts about a relative’s life during these times.

We have the device of elderly relatives struggling to find their words, when faced with the lense of a camera (or indeed smartphone), to retell and relive their horrors – some never quite regaining their ability to revisit a time that for decades they hadn’t openly (or if they had, suddenly found themselves slamming the door again on their accounts, painful and harrowing).

We had the, if I may, ‘light relief’ of a couple who whilst telling their truth of what it was to regain their sense of identity and being in a Britain after leaving behind their homeland, did so warmly as they ‘bantered’ back and forth as all the best married double-acts do.

The message here was they may have left their country of origin, but their culture was them and they were bringing it with them.

We had the distressing monologue of the elderly gentlemen, dressed in his Manchester United tracksuit top, having lived in the city for 50 years, his advancing years juxtaposed with memories as a child which have never left or moved on. His agonising inability to (understandably) comprehend why those who were ‘friends in the morning, wanted us dead in the afternoon’, never once leaving him, a haunting constant throughout his life.

The accounts are hard-hitting – rape, murder and racism are repeated themes. In a world that can, regrettably, create a self-preservation state of desensitisation in order to just get up in the mornings, saturated as we are by human atrocities and suffering, I am grateful to theatre, docu-theatre, in finding ways to break through this and lay voices from our past at our feet, without compromise.

Click here to watch an interview with Kavita Puri and Iqkbal Khan as taken from the HOME website.

You have the chance to hear these stories for yourself at HOME Mcr until Saturday 4 May. I’d urge you to take it – https://homemcr.org/production/silence/

Original production directed and developed for tour by Abdul Shayek
Directed by Iqbal Khan

From an original co-production by Tara Theatre and Donmar Warehouse
In association with Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch

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Cast

Alexandra D’Sa

Maya / DaughterRead bio

Tia Dutt

Mandeep / Jasmine / ZaraRead bio

Aaron Gill

Young Irfan / Tony / Noor’s Grandson / SamiRead bio

Mamta Kaash

Pooja / Khadija / NoorRead bio

Asif Khan

Jasvir / Kulvinder / JamesRead bio

Bhasker Patel

Father / Irfan / MukeshRead bio