Sarhad - Partition: Stories of Separation is an experiential performance using music, theater, video and design to retell the stories of separation from the Partition of India in 1947 by Sonam Kalra and an ensemble cast. The 1947 Partition of the subcontinent created the two new nations of India and Pakistan through tremendous birthing pains and trauma. 

Ever since Sonam was a young girl, she'd heard stories about the Partition. Both sides of her family came from the part of Punjab that is now in Pakistan. Even though she did not have to live through the pain of partition herself, she has always been moved to tears when talking about it, wondering why she should feel so deeply about it. It is this pain that has led her to question Partition further.

Sonam has always wished for peace between the two nations. Every time she someone from the other side of the border, she has found an underlying sense of kinship and love. Both parties have always met and looked at each other through the eyes of humanity and not through politics.

It is now 77 years since the Partition and therefore it is even more pertinent to revisit this cataclysmic event that changed the future of India and Pakistan forever. This is the reason why Sonam decided to explore what the Partition meant using the language of music. Many of the stories we have heard from the survivors of Partition will be lost with the passing of the older generation and they need to be preserved, honoured and to serve as lessons for generations to come. Sonam hopes that in revisiting these stories through music and theater, new generations will be able to empathize, ponder and realize the way forward. Hopefully, we will find a way of peace and co-existence based on a shared grief, a shared loss, a shared history and a shared love.

Sonam spent two years researching the works of poets and writers from both sides and composed the music for this performance based on their poetry and inspired by their stories. She also worked with a contemporary poet, Deepak Ramola, whose poetry is recited during the show. Using the power of music, the voices of Manto, Ali Sardar Jafri, Daman, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Amrita Pritam as well as personal accounts of ordinary people who survived this terrible ordeal, Sonam has woven together a retelling of this holocaust that tore the subcontinent apart.

On stage with Sonam Kalra is well known Indian theater actor Ruchika Chanana as well as an ensemble of musicians. Also collaborating with Sonam is one of India’s top visual artists, Gopika Chowfla.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 at 5:30 PM

RUNTIME:
80 minutes with no intermission

TICKETS:
Reserved Seating
$25 to $95

GENERAL ADMISSION

*Online sales will end 30 minutes prior to the scheduled curtain time. At this time tickets may be purchased in-person at the box office.

The box office opens 2 hours prior to the performance time for WILL CALL and walkup sales.

All sales are final. No refunds or cancellations available after purchase.

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