INTERVIEW: Kendra Jain offers Sita’s perspective in ‘The Sitayana’
Photo: Kendra Jain portrays 12 characters in The Sitayana, now playing at The Tank in New York City. Photo courtesy of Gabrielle Beaumont / Provided by Matt Ross PR with permission.
Kendra Jain, an accomplished performer, is up for the challenge of her newest role — or, rather, her several new roles. Jain is currently performing in The Sitayana (Or “How to Make an Exit”) at The Tank in New York City. In this updating of the Sanskrit epic poem, The Ramayana, Jain plays all of the 12 characters on stage, most prominently the role of Sita. If that wasn’t enough, Jain is also a co-producer, with her organization, Waves of Love, serving as a presenter of the play.
“We’ve had really wonderful, receptive audiences,” Jain said in a recent phone interview. “They’ve been really engaged in the play and reactive. I’ve had a wonderful time doing this run. It’s all been going so smoothly so far.”
Jain first read The Sitayana in 2018, and she instantly had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that this play was something special. The little voice in the back of her head told her she should sign up for this welcome challenge because the play, in her mind, was heartbreaking, funny, powerful and resilient.
“It’s definitely one of the hardest things, if not the hardest thing I’ve ever done as an actor,” Jain said. “Basically it’s the exact same story as The Ramayana, exactly as it was written down … it’s just told from Sita’s perspective. So we hear her voice in a way that we may not have heard it ever before. We hear her thoughts, her feelings, the inner-workings of her in a way that is not highlighted in the original story. The second half of our play focuses on the events that happened after Sita is rescued, which a lot of people in Indian culture and beyond sort of forget about, that there’s a bunch of other stuff that happens after the big battle, and most of that is stuff that happens to Sita. So our play focuses on that part of the story and lets audiences see Ram in a different light.”
In the story, Sita is a princess who is awaiting her marriage to Ram. She follows him to his kingdom for the pending nuptials, but then, all of a sudden, he’s banished to a forest for 14 years, according to a summary of the show. Sita tries to rescue her soon-to-be husband, but she finds herself captured by a demon.
For Jain, the story is an important one to tell in 2023, especially in light of how playwright Lavina Jadhwani is able to offer differing perspectives on the action. “Beyond 2023, I think it’s a perspective that we should have been talking about from the get-go,” Jain said. “It sort of feels long overdue. This is something in the wake of the MeToo movement and the ways we realize that women suffer injustices on a daily basis in the workplace or just in life. This play really lays that bare, and it shows the audience, no, this is what happens to women even if they are a princess and a queen. This is still what can happen to women. Yes, our story takes place in ancient times, but there are still elements of this story that are resonant in me today and many women that have come to see the show.”
In order to portray 12 characters over the course of the evening, Jain has to let herself go and trust in her work as an actor. With the assistance of director Sarah Shin, Jain found that the only way to tackle a gargantuan task like performing in a multi-character solo show was to learn her lines, learn her movements and let everything fall into place.
“I have to let myself go on the ride,” she said. “Every night before I go on, I just say to myself, ‘OK, we’re getting on the ride. We’re getting on the roller coaster.’ I don’t know what’s going to happen every night. I don’t know quite how things are going to land with me, and it’s a little scary. But it’s also really exciting, and I just let myself live fully in each character. And then when it comes time for me to switch, I switch, and then I’m fully in that other character. I have to trust myself. It’s a lot about trusting myself and knowing that when it comes time for that line and that character switch, I will be there. I’ve already put in the work. The character work is done for each character. I just have to trust when I’m on stage that it will be there, and it will serve me. It’s a big trust game.”
As Jain has worked on The Sitayama, which continues through Aug. 26 at The Tank, she has come to realize that this story is not unique to one culture. She and the creative team are tapping into universal themes about womanhood, patriarchy, power and humanity.
“I don’t think this is at all purely an Indian story,” Jain said. “I think this is a universal story of womanhood and about what it means to let go. I think it’s about letting go — letting go of expectations, both personal and societal. It’s about letting go of beliefs and ideas about people and things. It’s about letting go of relationships and even letting go of dreams and wishes, and letting those dreams and wishes change as Sita changes throughout the play. I think that is something that I grapple with every day, the idea of letting go.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Sitayana (Or “How to Make an Exit”), starring Kendra Jain, continues through Aug. 26 at The Tank in New York City. The production is co-presented by Waves of Love. Click here for more information and tickets.
