Soul Cages captivates Colombo!
Savitha Sastry's ‘Soul Cages’ opened to an electrifying response from
the audience at Colombo. This Bharathanatyam presentation left the
viewers spellbound by its rich tapestry of choreography, music,
lighting, and a story that is novel and thought provoking.
‘Soul Cages’ recounted the story of a six year old who is suddenly
taken back to heaven.
 The King of the other world, who is called the King of Death, takes
an instant liking to the child and finds himself playing and prancing
with the child in a rare display of tenderness.
Home-heaven
However, it follows that the child is unable to accept the permanence
of her new home-heaven, as it offers no joys to her in the absence of
the loved ones she left behind on earth. In an ironic twist, the
innocent child learns to bring her loved ones to heaven with a sincere
prayer that even the King of Death is unable to thwart.
How the King of Death resolves this situation and returns balance to
nature forms an enthralling and touching end to this performance.
All roles in this performance were portrayed by Savitha and yet the
audience had no difficulty in either distinguishing the characters or
following the story.
The performance left many of the audience visibly shaken and
emotionally stirred.
In the words of one of the audience members, “I was taken to another
dimension and world by Soul Cages!” Many in the audience expressed that
while they had seen several Bharathanatyam shows before they had never
seen or expected anything of this nature when they arrived at the show.
Striking a chord
Savitha's conviction of spreading the art form of Bharathanatyam by
using novel stories and presentations seems to have struck a chord with
Sri Lankans, as aptly summed up by a fan at the end of the Soul Cages
show, “Sri Lankans will never forget this performance.”
Conducted at the Bishop’s College Auditorium, Soul Cages was
conceptualised and directed by Savitha and her husband A K Srikanth.
Soul cages was also invited to be performed in Kandy the following night
in a first of its kind encore performance.
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