My Name is Tamizh: Three Lives by Sankar Venkateswaran

My Name is Tamizh: Three Lives directed by Sankar Venkateswaran premiers at the Spielart Theaterfestival 2023. The play is built on the principles of dialogue and translation, excerpted from ongoing conversations between people from different cultural backgrounds.

Two performers and one director come together to create a theatre piece. During this process, they become aware of the different relationships they foster regarding their Tamil origins: Nicholas grew up in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, during the civil war, with a deep-rooted Tamil identity. Kavita has been living in the diaspora since childhood and attempts to comprehend her Tamil heritage. Director Sankar with Tamil roots grew up in India, only later becoming aware of the civil war raging in north-east Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009.

In the exchange of personal anecdotes, the three reflect on the history of the conflict of the Tamil independence movement that was initiated by the burning of Jaffna’s library in 1981. They share intimate moments of vulnerability and speak of displacement, violence, and loss. In this manner, slowly, a multifaceted picture of historic events unfolds. As diverse as their biographies are, the same questions for origin, identity, and home arise from it, and there are no simple answers to them.

Team:
Text: Sankar Venkateswaran, Kirutharshan Nicholas, Kavita Srinivasan, Leow Puay Tin
Direction: Sankar Venkateswaran 
Scenography: Jean-Guy Lecat
Assistant Direction: Sanandhan V. Sankaran
Production: Satoko Tsurudome
Performance: Sankar Venkateswaran, Nicholas Kirutharshan, Kavita Srinivasan 

© Gabriela Neeb Sankar Venkateswaran, born in 1979, is a theatre director from Kerala. He lives and works from Sahyande Theatre, a theatre-dwelling he built in the mountain valley of Attappadi, Kerala. In 2007 he founded his own company Theatre Roots&Wings. His works include Indian Rope Trick, Criminal Tribes Act, Ibsen’s When We Dead Awaken, Shogo Ohta’s Water Station, and INDIKA for Munich Volkstheater. He is a recipient of the Ibsen Scholarship 2013, Norway. He served as the artistic director for International Theatre Festival of Kerala in 2016 and 2017.

The Jaffna Project, under which My Name is Tamizh is being developed, is supported by the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka and the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore.

October 31 and November 1, 2023, 8.00 p.m. CEST | Münchner Volkstheater