This play is stunning in its simplicity and endeavour. A beautifully-worded monologue about the clash of civilisations, the changing sands of time and one man’s place in it all. Kalagora is a thoroughly original, ingenious one-man production embodying the art forms and human diversity of the contemporary age.Kalagora is essentially a poem in three parts. A slam poem; formed for the fast-paced word battles of hunched writers with inky hands. The audience is given an introduction: a young man enduring the humiliation of border control at an American airport, before being plunged back in time to the poet’s youth. We experience Bombay through words, sound, and colourful projections. Everything about the sprawling metropolis is laid before you in a verbal picture, this style continuing for each of the subsequent scenes as we a hurtle to New York and eventually London.The enthralling descriptions of these significant locations in Kalagora’s life were matched with equal pleasure and pathos by the emotions and human experiences of the central character. The audience is made aware of his hopes, his human fragility, his life-changing encounters with other people. Most of all, we see a character who is flawed. Kalagora spends much of his time describing his intoxications, and the adventures that take place in pursuit of, or as consequence of indulgence.The simplicity of the set is the one element that could be expanded upon; experiencing more of the colours and smells of Bombay, or the cold, florescent nights of New York, would have made this production truly three-dimensional. Nevertheless it remains the most mesmerising play I have had the pleasure of seeing so far, and I would give it the highest recommendation.
