In Why English? - Layers beneath the language!, Vibhinna Ramdev delves into the importance of language to culture and belonging. Language moulds how we communicate and express ourselves. For some, your first language may have been the norm where you lived and who you grew up with, while for others your language may have been different from the norm. Ramdev explores the contradictory situation of experiencing both herself as a native English speaker growing up in Bengaluru, India.
This is where Ramdev’s show begins. As she packs up her clothes in Bengaluru, she films an audition tape where she explains her levels of proficiency across six languages. Sheer curtains are hung above the stage with clothes scattered, a suitcase up centre, grey fabric with text lining the edge of the stage and to the side a tripod with a ring light. This tool becomes handy for the auditions which is a clever narrative device during the show for Ramdev to construct herself multiple times by naming her shifting language proficiency.
Throughout the show, Ramdev talks to the audience as a friend. We are invited into her world as she flashes through different points in her life, like school, and various characters, from an upper-middle class mother and daughter to a colonial British figure in the 1800s. Alongside Ramdev’s acting, costumes and voiceovers are used to help the audience follow multiple people - yet a quick succession of characters in one vignette is hard to track despite its explicit descriptions of various locations and physical descriptions. It may not have been necessary to comprehend who each passing character was if it was clearer the vignette’s purpose served in the larger narrative.
Where Ramdev grew up, English was the primary language, so it was a cultural shock as she ventured beyond her home to discover this rift between her and many people in her home country. She emphasises the diversity of India where many languages and dialects are spoken and how social factors affect these interactions too, such as class. For instance, when she assumes a driver’s proficiency in English and he retorts his schooling background, she reflects on the ways education provided by class affects the social position and the legacy of colonisation in schooling. Yet this point is perhaps repeated a couple of times too many rather than allowing the audience to arrive at this conclusion on their own. Still, the personal stories of everyday encounters that speak to deeper concerns are the strength of this show.
Dance and physical theatre punctuate emotional beats. One dance tells a lovely story of the connection between people through the body across differing languages. Ramdev’s strong control of the body and creative movement choices makes for a dynamic show.
Delivering a show that features such cultural specificity on the other side of the world is a difficult feat. There’s a great deal of cultural and location information to convey to, for the most part, an unfamiliar audience without spoon-feeding exposition that would make the show clunky in any place it was performed. There were moments I, an Anglo monolingual English speaker, missed but some audience members were clued into the languages spoken and laughed along. It is not essential to understand every reference, and while the balance still needs some polishing, the important messages of the show are touching.
What’s beautiful about this show is the range of takeaways for audience members who bring their own stories of language, belonging and culture. Whether that’s experiences growing up in a country colonised by the British Empire where English is expected, such as ours, or a child of immigrants and the complex relationship to the country of ancestry and country of birth, or shared and dissimilar experiences growing up in India, there are moments in Ramdev’s deeply personal story that offers points of connection for all. The Q&A at the end of the show offered a chance to hear the stories of fellow attendees and build on the layers of the show.
The final show as part of Adelaide Fringe Festival is 2:15pm at The Lark in Gluttony. Ramdev is a powerful storyteller so I’m sure there will be more to see from her.