Budhoo's crossing cultural barriers

Published Nov 28, 2006

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Playwright Ashwin Singh's To House, which was earlier shown at Catalina Theatre, has been reworked and is being restaged at the Playhouse Drama Theatre until Sunday.

The production, which is directed by Caroline Smart, features a new cast.

One of the fresh faces belongs to Shika Budhoo. She plays Kajol, a strong-willed Indian woman whose decision to move in with her black boyfriend, Sibusiso (Arifani Moyo), greatly upsets her family.

How she juggles her career in marketing, her personal life and her traditional responsibility to her ailing mother, forms the subplot to the drama centred on Jason (Thomie Holtzhausen) and Sibusiso, who reside in the same complex.

The crux of To House revolves around how these two men deal with their failures, prejudices and attempts at one-upmanship.

To House is Budhoo's first major professional production. Having attained her honours degree in drama and performance at the University of KZN, the actress also teaches drama at creches and primary schools in KZN.

"My interest in drama and theatre started with Saira Essa's classes when I was about 10 years old. In school there wasn't much drama being taught and the principal told me if I could find a class, he would give me a teacher.

"I got enough students who were interested and we staged a few school plays. But it was really at university where my interest in drama kicked in," Budhoo explained.

With her uncle Mr Biggs being a celebrated local comedian and her grandfather having penned a lot of plays in his time, it is little surprise that Budhoo is pursuing a career in entertainment.

Aside from the productions she starred in while at university (Romeo and Juliet, The Good Person of Setzuan, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Bus Stops Here, Prince Senie: The Forgotten Prince and Impractical Magic), Budhoo has appeared in the staging of Macbeth at the Playhouse and in Flatfoot Dance Company's Transmission: Mother to Child at the Durban Art Gallery last year.

Getting back to her character in To House, Budhoo admits that she did not find it difficult to slip into character as she has had "many friends and boyfriends that have not been Indian".

"Kajol is a very strong person who takes everything in her stride, from dealing with racism from the general populace to her family's objections to her relationship," she added.

Of the reworking of the production, Budhoo said there will now be two sets and the closeness between Kajol and her boyfriend comes through more strongly.

Aside from To House, Budhoo also does drama skits - Kismet Court, Hitch Switch and Grandasia Lodge - that she does for LotusFM every weekday at 9.30pm.

She'll also appear in Singh's next production, Spices and Stuff, at the Catalina Theatre.

- Pre-booked tickets for To House cost R35 or R40 and tickets bought an hour before performances will cost R40 or R50. Bookings can be made at Computicket or call 031-369-9596.

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