Out The Box
An incredible new musical written and performed by Preeya Kalidas
★★★★★ Feb 11 ’23
Maya finally opens the box that was left for her, after her mother’s death. The box unlocks memories of the past and a journey of discovery for Maya. Helped by her mother’s best friend Dona (Sutara Gayle) and her best friend Charlie (played by Nick Hayes) we step into Maya’s world as each item found in the box, helps to explore and question her choices in life about career, relationships, family, and culture.
Unlike the other shows I saw at MTFest, this show was unabridged. It was a one act show coming in at about one hour ten minutes. In this show we see Maya (played by the co-writer and co-lyricist Preeya Kalidas), open the box that was left for her after her mothers death. When speaking to Preeya after the show she told me that the show was loosely based off of her life. She said Indian women were not really represented in theatre, so she decided she would create her own piece of theatre. She hopes in future that other Indian actresses can play this role, and be more represented in the industry. Throughout the show two ensemble members described how there would be images projected on the back wall so that the audience to see what Maya was seeing such as when looking through her mother’s scrap book of lyrics and photographs.
Talking to Preeya after the show she spoke of how she envisioned that when developing the show further she would love for certain memories to be transported to that place. For example, in one of the scenes Maya is transported to a club, and Preeya said she would love for that to be reflected in the sets and costumes. I think that in a fully staged production of the show it would be great to see some Bollywood style dance and bright, colourful costuming. The shows score is glorious and fully shows off all of Preeya Kalidas’ talents – including her amazing accents. Going in I was not expecting the eye-opening piece of theatre that this is. Everything said I was blown away – I can’t wait to see where this show will go next!