The Lunchbox: A Musical – Dylan Hing, Staff Writer
Over the summer, I caught the world-premiere musical adaptation of The Lunchbox at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California. Based on the 2013 film of the same name, the musical centres on Mumbai’s famously precise dabbawala food delivery system; in a rare mix-up, a lunchbox prepared by Ila (Kuhoo Verma) to win back her husband’s love is accidentally sent to retiring office worker Saajan (Manu Narayan). What follows is a unique friendship facilitated through letters sent by lunchbox.
Ila, stuck in a loveless relationship, and Saajan, alone and trapped in a mundane job, find themselves as pen pals, a premise which is simultaneously simple and fresh. The intricate, tightly-choreographed dances of the performance contrast sharply with Ila and Saajan’s loneliness. Early in the show, Ila, struggling to find comfort in her husband’s coldness, contemplates suicide in a letter to Saajan. Singing from her balcony, she questions, “Does it take courage to live, or does it take courage to die?” Ila considers whether her death would be courageous, but Saajan responds with the simple belief that it would be bolder to instead overcome loneliness. This mesmerizing story is one of courage—bound, one day, to reach the Broadway stage.
Sterling Point – Lia James, Contributor
Every summer, we seek out media that connects us with the rapture of the season while also containing just enough drama to keep us engrossed. The August release of Amazon Prime Video’s show Sterling Point fills both of these desires. Sterling Point follows the life of New Yorker Annie (Ella Rubin) as she visits a fictional island where her deceased mother grew up, located in the Muskoka Region of Ontario. Over the summer, Annie encounters new friends, unexpected family, and buried secrets that will forever change her life.
Sterling Point explores the bittersweet nature of uncovering an unknown past: The process can be painful, but it also helps reveal hidden parts of one’s being. While the show begins with Annie attempting to connect with her blood relatives, she creates a newfound family along the way, illustrating the beauty that emerges from making vast discoveries about her mother’s life. The show grapples with themes of queer love, class division, and grief, while also providing moments of comic relief to maintain emotional lightness throughout the series.
If you are still in denial about the end of summer and wish to watch something that will make you think and laugh at the same time, then Sterling Point may be the show for you.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante – Siena Torres, Contributor
This summer, I set myself the task of beginning the Neapolitan Quartet by the pseudonymous Elena Ferrante, a series spanning decades of the lives of two girls in postwar Naples. Recently named the best book of the twenty-first century by the New York Times and adapted to critical acclaim by HBO, My Brilliant Friend is unsurprisingly a masterclass in characterization. By the end of the novel, I was left feeling deeply intertwined with the characters’ lives. The novel is decorated with a cast of peripheral characters so large that I often found myself flipping back to the character list—even though its core focuses on the bond between Elena and her “brilliant friend” Lila as they grow from young girls into teenagers.
While part of the novel is set in the beachside town of Ischia, My Brilliant Friend is not a light beach read. Ferrante refuses to hide the violence of the girls’ impoverished neighbourhood and the abuse they face from men and loved ones. The book forced me to consider a not-so-distant past when girls’ education was still in peril in the aftermath of fascist Italy. But what most gripped me in my reading of My Brilliant Friend was how Ferrante constructs a fraught female friendship marked by jealousy, resentment, and at times, tenderness.