Q Theatre: Tell us a little bit about Guru of Chai! What can audiences who haven't seen it before expect?
Jacob Rajan: Guru of Chai is a cautionary tale about the danger of putting your soul in a cage. It's a storytelling piece with a dodgy Eastern mystic as our unreliable spiritual guide, promising to take away everything that is wrong with our lives, but instead, telling us a story from his own life that is brimful of romance, joy, danger, intrigue, and loss.
Can you share the background and inspirations of how the show came about?
The play is an adaptation of an Indian fairy tale called "Punchkin". We discovered it when researching to make a children's show, but even though we loved the story, ultimately, we thought it was a little too dark for children. However, taking the dramatic moments of the original and setting them in modern India gave us a fairy tale for grown-ups instead.
The Guru himself was influenced by a real-life character we met in Bali while studying Balinese mask dance. Neoman Sukerta was an exceptional mask dancer steeped in his spiritual practice. He was also a wonderfully flawed human being who loved to gamble, drink, and was desperate to have a Facebook page.
What sort of elements piece together the show?
The stage is a rudimentary platform, a cloth backdrop, a few flimsy screens, wooden crates, and some implements for making tea. From these meagre props, the Guru conjures an entire world populated with characters who will live large in the audience's imagination and awaken their wonder and delight.
There is also a wonderful live music element to the show. David Ward won composer of the year for his work on Guru and his stunning soundtrack, played and sung live by Adam Oogle, carries both the uplift and the heartache of the work.
The show is set in a railway station in India. Can you tell us more about the location and how it's important to the story?
The railway station is very specific to me. It's Bangalore Central Station, which was the railway station closest to my parent's house in India. The funny thing is that, after the show, I'll always have people coming up to me saying "I know that railway station!", but of course, it won't be Bangalore. It'll be some other station, but it doesn't really matter. They've coloured the story with a railway station from their own imagination - job done!
The alternating current between me and the audience is where the theatre lives. I'm listening and responding to them as much as they are to me. You can't get that from Netflix.
You play an impressive 17 different characters in Guru of Chai. Tell us about your experience of shifting between all these different roles!
We spent two years putting this show together and have subsequently toured it in Aotearoa and around the world for over a decade now. The technical aspects of changing my body and voice have been honed over that time, so now the experience of shifting roles is more akin to channeling the characters than creating them.
Unfortunately, Justin Lewis (Director), is a tyrant and demands more than my cosmic sense of character. We rehearse rigorously to maintain each character's physical presence in the space, their eye-line, their gestural vocabulary, and their vocal clarity. We work hard in rehearsal so that the audience's imaginations don't have to work as hard during the performance.
What is it like to carry the show as the main performer on stage?
Honestly, for me, it's a joy. The alternating current between me and the audience is where the theatre lives. I'm listening and responding to them as much as they are to me. You can't get that from Netflix.
What are the next steps for Guru of Chai? What do you hope for the show's future?
Guru of Chai was conceived during the Global Financial Crisis as a tonic for dark times. There's really no grand plan for what's next, I guess my hope is just that it continues to bring joy and go where it's needed.
Come and experience this outrageously funny and heartbreakingly beautiful show! Indian Ink's Guru of Chai is on in Q Theatre, Rangatira from 12 - 23 June. Click here to read more and book tickets.
