‘Beyond Borders’, directed by Ramanjit Kaur was recently presented at the ICCR, and garnered a sizeable audience. The central theme of the play was around inclusivity and humanism, interestingly depicted by a lack of it throughout the presentation. The idea of the play was inspired by renowned poet Neal Hall’s work ‘Blood On Our Hands’. The poet himself was invited from the United States, to present his inspirational poem before the audience, and provided the audience with the essence of the play. Dr. Hall’s very moving narration of his creation, that Ramajit Kaur taps into in her play set an appropriate mood for the dramatic action that followed, successfully engaging the audience’s attention.

The play represents a very broad view of borders, such as the geographical, physical, religious, sentimental, racial, gender based and borders of the mind and body. The first to be shown was the ache brought to the heart upon geographical borders being formed. This was depicted by highlighting the plight of a refugee and the pain she feels when the natives treat her, the foreigner, with hostility and contempt. A scene which elaborated upon racial borders was represented by the deviant and vulgar treatment girls with Mongoloid features receive from crass, narrow minded individuals. Transgender discrimination was thrown light upon a great deal, with a jarring presentation that made the audience shudder due to its spine-chilling display of cruelty and suffering. Relationship borders were highlighted by showing the degeneration of a father-daughter bond, which dwindled into nothingness upon the father’s death, but the daughter realizes it too late. Social borders such as stigmas associated with sex workers, causing them to be outcasts, or the highly-differentiated treatment given to either excessively attractive girls or to dark-complexioned ones was also touched upon.

The play harped constantly on how everyone has blood on their hands, for even if we do not cause exclusion, we propagate it by watching it happen and by doing nothing to curb it. By constantly subjecting the audience to visions of frightening inhumanity, a plea was made to make room for inclusion and acceptance. The play was extremely stimulating, visually, with excellent acting, tasteful music and lighting, evoking varied emotions from the audience, from pity to fear. The message was clearly presented, and the universality made Ramanjit Kaur’s work very successful.

‘Beyond Borders’, directed by Ramanjit Kaur was recently presented at the ICCR, and garnered a sizeable audience. The central theme of the play was around inclusivity and humanism, interestingly depicted by a lack of it throughout the presentation. The idea of the play was inspired by renowned poet Neal Hall’s