Archived

Counting
and Cracking

By S. Shakthidharan
Director Eamon Flack

  • Venue Sydney Town Hall
  • Dates 11 January – 2 February 2019
  • Duration Approx. 3 hours 30 minutes (Including 2 intervals)

    எண்ணிக்கை, இல்லையேல் கையோங்கு

    ගණන් නොගන්නේ නම් ගණන් කරන්න

    ***

    This is an archive page. Click here to view the 2024 production page of Counting and Cracking.

    ***

    On the banks of the Georges River, Radha and her son Siddhartha release the ashes of Radha’s mother – their final connection to the past, to Sri Lanka and its struggles. Now they are free to embrace their lives in Australia. Then a phone call from Colombo brings the past spinning back to life, and we are plunged into an epic story of love and political strife, of home and exile, of parents and children.

    Counting and Cracking is a big new play about Australia like none we’ve seen before. This is life on a large canvas, so we are leaving Belvoir St and building a Sri Lankan town hall inside Sydney Town Hall. Sixteen actors play four generations of a family, from Colombo to Pendle Hill, in a story about Australia as a land of refuge, about Sri Lanka’s efforts to remain united, about reconciliation within families, across countries, across generations.

    We’ve done some big shows before – Cloudstreet, Angels in America. This is big too, but in a different way: it’s a new kind of Australian story. What makes it magnificent is its grand theatrical sweep, and its vision – deeply moving, compelling – necessary, of why we must never flag in the pursuit of an open society.

    Co-produced with Co-Curious
    Sri Lankan Meal provided by Dish Dining & Events

    Counting and Cracking was made through ongoing collaboration between Belvoir and Co-Curious, and S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack – across writing, producing and direction.

    Counting and Cracking has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Major Festivals initiative, managed by the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, in association with the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals Inc., Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival

    Supported by Macquarie Group Foundation, Naomi Milgrom Foundation, Neilson Foundation, Nelson Meers FoundationOranges and Sardines Foundation, and Belvoir’s visionary Gamechanger donors.

    The Thyne Reid Foundation is acknowledged for their support of Belvoir’s Western Sydney initiatives.

    Waitlist for seats: For sold out performances, we also operate a waitlist for seats. The waitlist is available to take names at the Sydney Town Hall Box office between 5:30pm and 6:30pm (for 7pm performances) and 11:30am – 12:30pm (for 1pm performances). Please note that the waitlist is only available in person and is subject to availability. People do return tickets or advise us when they can’t use their tickets and we then release them shortly before the show commences.

    Team

    Costume & Cultural Advisor Anandavalli
    Set & Costume Designer Dale Ferguson
    Lighting Designer Damien Cooper
    Sound Designer & Composer Stefan Gregory
    Associate Sound Designer Jessica Dunn
    Movement and Fight Director Nigel Poulton
    Accent Coach Linda Nicholls-Gidley
    Assistant Director Carissa Licciardello
    Associate Artist Suzanne Pereira
    Sri Lankan Meal Dish Dining and Events
    Stage Manager Luke McGettigan
    Deputy Stage Manager Jennifer Parsonage
    Assistant Stage Manager Julia Orlando

    Cast

    Prakash Belawadi
    Nicholas Brown
    Jay Emmanuel
    Rarriwuy Hick
    Antonythasan Jesuthasan

    Nadie Kammallaweera
    Ahi Karunaharan
    Monica Kumar

    Gandhi MacIntyre
    Shiv Palekar
    Monroe Reimers
    Hazem Shammas
    Nipuni Sharada
    Vaishnavi Suryaprakash
    Rajan Velu
    Sukania Venugopal
    and
    Arky Michael (Adelaide)
    Kalieaswari Srinivasan (Adelaide)

    Band
    Kranthi Kiran Mudigonda
    Janakan Raj
    Venkhatesh Sritharan

    Shenzo Gregorio (Adelaide)
    Arjunan Puveendran (Adelaide)
    Vinod Prasanna (Adelaide)

    Videos

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • Adelaide Season

      Counting and Cracking will be touring to the Adelaide Festival for a limited season from 2 – 9 March 2019 in the Ridley Centre, Adelaide Showgrounds.

      Performances will take place at the following times:

      • Sat 02 Mar 7:00pm
      • Sun 03 Mar 5:00pm
      • Tue 05 Mar 7:00pm
      • Wed 06 Mar 1:00pm, 7:00pm
      • Thu 07 Mar 7:00pm
      • Fri 08 Mar 7:00pm
      • Sat 09 Mar 1:00pm, 7:00pm

       

    • Supporters

      Gamechangers

      We give our heartfelt thanks to our Producers’ Syndicate of visionary individual’s whose support will make a landmark contribution to Australian theatre.

      Visionary Producer
      Macquarie Group Foundation
      Neilson Foundation
      Nelson Meers Foundation

      Lead Producer
      Patty Akopiantz and Justin Punch
      Sophie and Stephen Allen
      Doc Ross Family Foundation
      Naomi Milgrom Foundation
      Oranges and Sardines Foundation
      Rob Thomas AM
      Kim Williams AM and Catherine Dovey

      Major Producer
      Max Bonnell
      Jane and Andrew Clifford
      Sue Donnelly
      The Horizon Foundation
      Dan and Jackie Philips
      John Pickhaver
      Mark and Jacqueline Warburton
      Shemara Wikramanayake and Ed Gilmartin

      Producer
      Mehrdad and Roya Baghai
      Jessica Block
      Andrew Cameron AM and Cathy Cameron
      The Hand Up Foundation
      Ruveni and Craig Kelleher

      Supporter
      Anne Britton
      Bob and Chris Ernst
      Lisa George
      Knights Family Jabula Foundation
      Lisa O’Brien
      Belinda and Steve Rankine
      Rob White and Lisa Hamilton

    • Writer’s Note: S.Shakthidharan

      Ten years ago I was hungry. Hungry to learn about my mother’s homeland. To know my history. So I started on a journey that had no clear end.

      I read everything there was to read on the subject. I had conversations with so many gracious and intelligent Sri Lankans from all around the world. I was reeling from the overload, but slowly, very slowly, a story was being born. It was a story about parents and children. About coming together and breaking apart and coming together again – in our families, our governments, our countries.

      And this story became something bigger than my own hunger. It became something that had a power. The power to help my mother reconcile with her homeland. To connect people across deep divides. The power to collapse time and join continents.

      The story became less about fitting my community into a simple narrative, and more about presenting a group of people in all their glorious complexity. It became less about discovering “the truth” of what happened in Sri Lanka, or what brought us to Australia, and more about understanding the stage as a sacred space where many truths can gather at once.

      The stories we choose to believe in underlie all our actions, thoughts and feelings. In Counting and Cracking I hope to provide audiences with a new story to believe in: about Australia, about Sri Lanka. It’s a story in which migrants are not asked to discard parts of themselves to fit in, but instead are asked to present their full selves, to expand our idea of what this country can be. It’s a story of how the politics of division can win the battle, but never the war, around how power is gained in this world. It’s a story in which love may not triumph over adversity, but through sheer persistence and resilience can eventually overcome it. And finally it’s a story about reconciliation: between parents and children, between neighbours and enemies, between your new home and your old home, between society and its institutions.

      It’s been quite the ride for Co-Curious and Belvoir, as both companies have utilised their different sets of expertise to make this wildly ambitious dream a reality. Neither company could have done it on its own. Much like the story of Counting and Cracking, the process of making this work proves that real power can be gained when different groups come together to create something new.

    • Director’s Note: Eamon Flack

      This is an Australian story. It’s not only an Australian story, but it is definitely an Australian story. Much of it takes place in Sri Lanka: the story of Australia is the story of many places, many people. Ours is a migrant nation on Aboriginal land. At its best it is a land of refuge and new beginnings. With each successive wave of arrivals, from the earliest times to the English boats, to now, the country has changed, and the national story has changed. Counting and Cracking is a new offer to that big unfolding story.

      It is about many things, but at the heart of it is the fundamental need every one of us has to connect to each other, the world, the past, and the future. Most of our lives are spent making and nurturing these connections. We do this on every scale of life, in small ways and big ways. The small ways are usually age-old, closely-held things – love, family, language, story, belief, food, home, place, the passage of time from one generation to the next. The big ways are more likely to be newer, more public inventions – the big shared narratives of national identity, political negotiation, economic purpose. Counting and Cracking is about the relationship between the big stuff and the small stuff, and what happens when the big stuff tears apart the small stuff. A language shattered, a family torn apart, a place torn down – these things are fragile. They cannot be taken for granted. We inherit them, they are in our keeping. The big stuff must take care of the small stuff. The small stuff is what matters most. We cannot be a nation or a whole person if we cannot keep hold of these connections. And when a person or a group of people have been torn apart then the only thing to do is to begin again – to revive the old connections, or make new ones. Fortunately, new connections are always possible. New stories are always possible. We mix from here and there, from now and the past. Water and water.

      This show is the product of new connections. Bringing it together took an almighty effort by a great coalition of people from many walks of life. Belvoir could not have done this without Co-Curious, and Co-Curious could not have done this without Belvoir. We each had to discover what we did and didn’t know, and what the other knew that we didn’t. Step by step, through days then weeks then years of conversation, we began to see that this show was not just necessary, it was also possible. Then we had to convince a lot of other people that it was necessary and possible. We had to find new partners, new collaborators. Most people were willing – not all, but most. We travelled around Australia. We travelled to London, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur. We spoke to people in Paris, Wellington, Toronto, New York. We travelled all around Sri Lanka, from Colombo to Jaffna to Kayts to Batticaloa. Little by little the coalition of people and organisations grew. Together it has taken our two companies almost six years to bring everything into alignment, and it has only been possible because hundreds of people from all over Australia and around the world have joined in.

    • Cast Blog: Jay Emmanuel

      “Completely Transfixed by the Sublime Poetry”

      Perth based actor, writer and theatre-maker Jay Emmanuel on the social and political power of Counting and Cracking, and his experiences of rehearsal as he works on his portrayal of young Thirru.

      What did you expect when you were first cast in Counting and Cracking?

      I expected it to be a life changing event and so it is for me. It is the biggest play I have ever been a part of. The magnificent scale and depth of the play has really moved and challenged me, something I expected but maybe not to this extent.
      Apart from that I came in with an open mind and heart in the rehearsals.

      Has working on the show differed from your expectations, and if so, how?

      After having spent a few weeks in rehearsal it is quite clear now how much the stories have affected all of us. We frequently get goosebumps while rehearsing. You can feel the drama of the whole piece as the words take form.
      We are working through the play very diligently, paying attention to every word and moment and it’s really good to have the time to be able to do so.

      Also, it has been heartwarming to know how close the play is to the people it speaks to. We’ve had people from Sri Lankan community in the room, guiding and teaching us new things about Sri Lankan culture. It feels very much like a communal endeavour.

      What are the biggest challenges of the rehearsal process?

      It is a multi-dimensional world. There are multiple layers: social, cultural and political, all intertwined and affecting each other constantly. It took me quite a while to get my head around it and I am still discovering new things in the play.

      What are you most enjoying so far?

      There is a very strong complicity in the team and a communal desire to do things well. Most of us didn’t known each other before the first read but it didn’t take us long to become a tight knit fam. Also we’re learning multiple languages, accents and dance styles which is super fun and hilarious. Everybody is quite open to trying new things and there is a real sense of curiosity in the room.

      Is this your first time in Sydney? What are you hoping to see and do while you’re here?

      This is my first time ‘living’ in Sydney. I have already been to quite a few art galleries and beaches, including the nudist beach, which was an experience. I am hoping to be able to go to the Blue Mountains because about a dozen friends have recommended it. And of course, theatre! I am really looking forward to seeing as much independent theatre as possible; Belvoir 25A, Old 505 and King Street Theatre are on top of my list.

      What does being a part of Counting and Cracking mean to you?

      It actually feels like being part of a revolution. A cast of 16 brown and deadly actors in a main stage play by a major company! When was the last time that happened in Australia?

      Why should people come and see the show?

      When I first read the play, I was completely transfixed by the sublime poetry in the writing and its universality, it’s close proximity with the real, the truth, to life, as it is. It is not an interpretation of the story, it is the story told with complete truth and that has transformative power on anyone that encounters it. I believe it will leave the audiences transformed. Isn’t that the reason we go to the theatre in the first place?

    • Cast Blog: Prakash Belawadi

      Manufacturing the other

      Actor Prakash Belawadi on the challenges inherent to democracy, and the reconciliatory power of Counting and Cracking.

      “Early in 2018, when the playwright (Shakthidharan) and director (Eamon Flack) first came to my city Bengaluru, India for a quick audition, I was already in love with the script, which had been emailed to me. Several months later, when they came for the confirming audition, my plans had changed: my daughter was to get married in January 2019 and I couldn’t be a part of this production.

      I felt bad. My wife and daughters felt worse. I had read parts of the script to them and they saw how moved I was by it.  We are a family immersed in amateur theatre for three generations (I grew up in a parental home named ‘Green Room’). Let me tell you why the play is so important to us.

      If democracy simply means “rule of the majority,” it could mean something very dangerous in my country, India, because “A majority of whom?” would be the question then. With our identity politics of religion, caste or language, it is easy to conceptualise, alienate and objectify several ‘minorities’, overlapping in impossible Venn diagrams.

      American ethicist and political commentator Reinhold Niebuhr famously said, “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” But is democracy by itself enough as a guarantor of justice? With identity politics, a majority is not made of, or by, a number of voting individuals, but the larger groups or communities.

      ‘Counting and Cracking’ gets it in a telling way. It is about Sri Lanka, and about democracy. For me, it is about India and any other democracy of the world. We all see the agenda of getting just the mathematics right, where a notional majority or minority seems to be asking at each election, “Whose country is it, anyway?”

      So, in my own vast and complex nation, when some of “us” look at some of “them”, I often think we should tell ourselves, “who we are is who we were,” as says Anthony Hopkins, playing John Quincy Adams in the movie ‘Amistad’, for we have been either there or that, some time or the other. And this is not to be politically correct, for I believe it is as evil to manufacture through identity politics a “minority”, as it is to make the “majority”.

      My family said I had to be in Counting and Cracking. I told them what that entailed: we would need to move the wedding date and I would have to give up nice-pay roles in some movies and web series at the time of our fat Indian wedding. But my crazy wife and children managed to arrange a change of wedding date and let me travel to Australia.

      I think this production is a big deal. I also think it shows great gumption and generosity for Belvoir to pick up such a challenge – a reckoning of the troubled history of a once-colonised nation, a narrative of migrants, performed by actors from places and origins as diverse as Palestine, Fiji and, of course, south Asia. It warms my heart that a community of sponsors, organisers and theatre-loving people is willing to come together to participate in this collaboration, which is at once an attempt to understand and reconcile.”

    • Cast Blog: Monica Kumar

      “PRESENTED WITH AN UNBIASED EYE”

      Sydney based actor and youth worker Monica Kumar on learning new languages for the role and the incredible socio-political backdrop to the production.

      What did you expect when you were cast in Counting and Cracking?

      I was really excited to be cast in Counting and Cracking because I was lucky enough to have been given the full play and I thought the play was really wonderful and wonderfully written and something I had no idea about, which was really terrifying considering it only happened 10 years ago; less than 10 years ago.

      As for what I expected, I expected it to be a lot of hard work and so far it has been. Just reading it and understanding the context of the civil war, which is a quite recent thing, and getting the complexity of that across to the audience without any bias. Also learning the different languages and the different contexts in which those languages are spoken. It was a lot to learn.

      I hadn’t really considered how difficult the translations would be, and I also didn’t consider that even with all the other languages being spoken the audience still needs to understand what’s going on.

      What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far?

      I guess the biggest challenges so far have been the languages, and also making sure that we’re doing the play justice and the story and context justice. We need to make sure that people who are from Sri Lanka and have a close relationship to the civil war can look at it and feel it’s been presented with an unbiased eye.

      What are you most enjoying so far?

      I’m most enjoying working with the wonderful cast, everyone is so talented and hardworking and generous. Also, everyone is from such different backgrounds and we’re all just learning from each other every day; I’d say that’s the best thing.

      What does being a part of Counting and Cracking mean to you?

      It’s really exciting to do a new work that is really relevant to now but also something that is about a period in modern history that I’m going to assume a lot of people didn’t and still don’t know about. Personally I feel like Australia being so close to Asia means that I should’ve known about a civil war going on, and I didn’t, and it was happening when I was in high school.

      And so that’s been really exciting, having new ideals about what Australian work and the Australian canon is going to be.

      Why should people come and see the show?

      People should come and see the show because it’s a great script, with a great cast, and you get fed!

      That’s my biggest sell, how often do you get fed! Also it’s a wonderful story and everyone’s worked really hard for it.

    • Cast Blog: Rajan Velu

      Photo by Jonathan Vandiveer

      “A PRECEDENT GOING FORWARD”

      Actor Rajan Velu, recently returned from almost 10 years of film, television and theatre work in the US, on Counting and Cracking and the huge changes to the entertainment industry in the past decade, and the importance of representation.

      What did you expect when you were first cast in counting and cracking?

      I expected an epic story; and that I was going to meet a variety of actors from all over the world and that it was going to be a fun process putting everything together but also it was going to be a big challenge because there were sixteen actors in the one production. And it has definitely met my expectations. The story is amazing and we have a wonderful bunch of actors with whom we’re going to be forging relationships moving forward. In that sense it’s exceeded my expectations.

      How has working on the show differed from your expectations?

      The challenge is just getting my head around the language. I speak Tamil but I speak Indian Tamil which is very different from Sri Lankan Tamil. Sri Lankan Tamil is a very pure form of the language and more traditional, and so in terms of getting my tongue to move the way it needs to move to articulate the Tamil in a Sri Lankan way, that was my biggest challenge. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it, but hearing it over and over again I’m getting closer to what’s needed. All my characters speak a different language, I have maybe five English lines in the whole play! I’m speaking Tamil, and I’m speaking Sinhala, predominantly. And working hand in hand with the translations as well, as an actor being able to stay in the moment as they translation comes through and then picking it up straight away without there being any dead air between was very difficult.

      Did you have any exposure to Sinhala before the project?

      I do have friends who are Singhalese so I’ve heard it before; a really close family friend of mine is Singhalese, he’s like an uncle to me and I’ve heard him speak, so I knew what it sounded like but I’ve never spoken it.

      What helps me I guess is that I speak Hindi as well, and Hindi is derived from Sanskrit and so is Singhalese, whereas Tamil is a language on its own. It has a musicality and it’s not derived from Sanskrit, it’s a pure language so to speak. The fact that I know three languages helped me learn this other one in terms of pronunciation. I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I’m getting there.

      What are you enjoying most so far?

      I’m enjoying the cast members; it’s such a lovely people, not just the actors, the cast and the crew. Everyone is so open and friendly, it feels like a big family and I love that about theatre productions; being part of a family, doing things together, and that’s for me the best thing about this play. I’m excited to come to work every day to see this family.

      You’ve only recently come back from the United States. What has it been like coming back to Sydney?

      Well I’ve been away for nine and a half years, and the landscape in terms of film and television, and theatre has changed a lot since I was here last working as an actor. In 2008 I did my last play a few months before I left for the states and then coming back what I’ve noticed is there’s just more parts for me that weren’t there 10 years ago. There are so many projects where they’re casting people of all ethnicities and that’s the biggest change I’ve noticed with all areas of performing arts in Australia. And now with this play, I can’t remember it ever happening where you’ve got an almost all South Asian cast on the main stage, that’s a big thing; and I love the story. I have a tough time rehearsing sometimes because I get emotional; just knowing the gravity of these scenes like the love story and the politics, and I think to myself, you’ve got to keep it together, you’re one of the actors!

      What does being a part of Counting and Cracking mean to you?

      It feels like I’m part of a ground breaking piece of work that’s going to set up a precedent going forward in Australian theatre. I’m really proud to be a part of this production because I really believe in the story. It’s a story that needs to be told because I think there could be a lot of healing from this story given the civil war in Sri Lanka and the differing thoughts and feelings regarding what went on. And it lets people know that it’s okay to talk about what happened and maybe they can move forward from that.

      Why should people come and see the show?

      Because the show is a universal story of family, love, loss and reunion. I kind of feel that it has everything, and no matter where you come from you can connect with the story because the characters are universal. If you want to feel a range of emotions, come and see Counting and Cracking.

    • Podcast

      Writer S.Shkathidharan, Director Eamon Flack, and Cultural and Costume Advisor Anandavalli describe the mammoth undertaking that is COUNTING AND CRACKING, and the pressing need for theatre that speaks to the multiplicity of Australian and Sri-Lankan Australian experiences.

      Writer S.Shakthidharan and Director Eamon Flack, recount the mammoth undertaking of breathing life into Counting and Cracking, over 10 years since it was first conceived. Produced for Belvoir by Sophie Raymond.

      You can also listen to our official podcast and other audio content produced by Belvoir on:

      Make sure you follow us to get all the updates on our productions.

    • Food

      Everyone who attends Counting and Cracking at Sydney Town Hall will be served a taste of Sri Lankan Cuisine presented by the Sydney institutions of Sri Lankan cooking, Dish Dining and Events, included in the ticket price.

      Both a meat and vegetarian option will be available and additional food and beverage options may be purchased on site.

      The Sri Lankan taster will be served 45 minutes before the commencement of the performance. For matinee shows this means food will be served from 12:15pm for a 1pm show start. For evening shows this means food will be served from 6:15pm for a 7pm show start.

    Keep up to date with the latest news at Belvoir

    This is an archive page. Click here to view the 2024 production page of Counting and Cracking.