Review Of A Vancouver Guldasta On Now At The Cultch Until October 21st

The production of A Vancouver Guldasta touches on a number of themes, but the one that stood out for us was relatable. If you live in Vancouver, there’s a good chance you are an immigrant or children of immigrants. If are not, this production will be an insight to life in the 80s on a number of levels.  You almost forget how archaic the video games were by today’s standards, but they were pretty cool back then and fun. Cordless phones were those big brick things, with long antennas you pushed up and down when you made a call.  Our family home in the 1980s was a sea of gold, orange and browns, the style of the times.  All these things were part of the intimate stage set for A Vancouver Guldasta in the Cultch Lab.  This is a smaller venue which is this perfect setting for this production. You feel like you are a fly on the wall in the living room of the Dhaliwal family in the 1980s. This is also to the credit of the amazing cast that never lost our attention throughout.

A Vancouver Guldasta features the political and religious unrest in India in 1984 during which time the Indian government invaded The Golden Temple, a holy shrine of the Sikhs.  The story has a much further reach though which is at every turn in this production.  That comes in the way of Andy, a Vietnamese student living in the basement. He plays an important part in this family and highlights what many immigrant families left behind to make a better life including war, violence, persecution and hunger.  They have come to a new country to make a new life, but still long for the life they left behind, their family and their friends. In the 1980s, if you wanted to reach to those friends or family, there was no internet. You couldn’t just reach out and touch someone with a text or Facebook message to check in. If phone lines were down, there was no way to check in.

This story speaks to the many immigrants that make up a good portion of Vancouver’s population. No matter what country they are from, they still long for what was left behind.  Many immigrants have ties to violence and war which often are lost in rush to get everywhere in the day to day life of 2018. We encourage you to take time to see A Vancouver Guldasta. It’s important to understand the past to help shape a better future.  Tickets for a Vancouver Guldasta are available online via The Cultch.

Photo Credit: Pardeep Singh

Tags: A Vancouver Guldasta, East Vancouver, Pardeep Singh, Review, Sikh, The Cultch, The Golden Temple, Theatre