/ARTS WEEKLY/BRITAIN: Old Magic Gets a New Touch

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Beverly Andrews

LONDON, Aug 19 2003 (IPS) - The story of Aladdin, one of the many exotic tales to be found in ‘The Thousand and One Arabian Nights’, and his journey from poverty to the Sultan’s palace has fascinated readers for generations. Aladdin’s luck in finding a magic lamp, which in turn would grant his every wish, is the stuff of legend.

London-based multimedia theatre company Moti Roti along with The Builder’s Association based in the U.S. has taken this simple tale and reinterpreted it for a 21st-century audience. ‘Alladeen’ – as spelt to give the story a more eastern accent – looks at our desire for instant gratification and suggests that maybe the reality of the Alladeen myth could be very different from the fantasy.

Alladeen takes the audience on a journey from New York to India and then to London.

Most of the play is set in the call centres of Bangalore where young Asians work hard at erasing any trace of their ethnic origins as they struggle to convince the callers who phone that they are actually located somewhere in the United States.

This they do for high salaries and even the possibility of travel to the U.S., but they also pay a high price for these dreams to come true – the possible sacrifice of their own identities.

The idea of exploring life inside the call centres of India evolved through the collaboration of the two companies. "First the idea of working together came about because we both admired each other’s work," says Ali Zaidi, co-founder of Moti Roti.

"We particularly liked the work of The Building Association because they used technology in such an interesting way, and had actors who were not frightened by it. When we finally started discussing what we both wanted to do, both Keith Khan, (Moti Roti’s other director) and I felt that it would be interesting to explore a fable, or folk tale."

About that time the ‘New York Times’ ran a piece on call centres in India. "Marianne Weems, the artistic director of The Builders Association faxed us the piece and the idea came about to place this story inside one of these call centres and to explore what happens when desire for instant riches are fulfilled, but at a cost," Zaidi says.

Alladeen begins and ends with segments in New York and London where wealthy, jet-setting Asians are shown living fairly aimless lives. The core of the play is located in Bangalore where workers struggle to divide themselves between the identities they have created for work and their real selves.

The play hilariously shows operators taking the names of characters in the hit U.S. sitcom ‘Friends’. The operators not only have to assume new names but whole identities, and claim to live in a country which most of them have never even seen.

Above the action on stage are images of film adaptations of the story. So, you are constantly reminded of the parallels between the two stories. But the visuals do much more than point out the parallels. They comment on the action on stage, and at other times create a kind of dialogue between characters.

And then finally you see people on film who actually work in the centres. Young men and women explain in Americanised English what life is like working there. "Many of them see it as a time in their lives where they are willing to sacrifice to save money for university or whatever they need it for and then move on," says Zaidi, who travelled to India to film the interviews.

Some of the funniest moments of the play are the telephone conversations where operators struggle to stay a step ahead of the callers, who invariably appear to be testing their knowledge of the United States, such as the operators have gained through books rather than experience.

All the while, their U.S. supervisors listen for what they call "native tongue interference." The ‘lapse’ could cost them their job if it comes too often. Meanwhile they talk amongst themselves of the United States as if it was the Sultan’s own palace.

Alladeen is currently on a world tour, which will take it to New York in the fall. And finally the ‘real’ voices will be heard in the U.S.

"I think in this whole debate what has been lost has been the voices of the people who are working there, and that’s what we wanted to do with this show," says Zaidi.

Alladeen does achieve that end in showing the unhappy lifestyles the workers in the call centre aspire to. Which raises the question what really happens if those dreams come true.