Synopsis
The Solo Act is set in 500 CE Babylon, the commercial centre of the ancient world. Castrated and sold into slavery by his father, Nikor is apprenticed to the Greek Plautus, the Chief Economist of Babylon. With his brilliance in mathematics and statecraft, he attains incredible fame and wealth as the state’s Chief Mathematician, Accountant General and Keeper of the Seals. But is Nikor happy?
When he finds his childhood friend Salla again, now the wife of a debauched prince, Nikor is haunted by questions about himself, the pursuit of knowledge and what Salla means to him. But Nikor loses Salla again, and what’s more, watches Babylon prepare for troubling times, as Persia lays siege to the fabled kingdom. And then, in an act that is to have monumental consequences, Nikor betrays his masters and gives the Persians a way in.
What follows is actually, pure Greek tragedy. Nemesis knocks next, and bereft of anything worthwhile in his young life, Nikor decides to end it all.
Mathemagician, is a compelling study in contrasts and focuses on the inescapable humanity of a subject which might otherwise be an epic story. Never quite impotent, but never entirely puissant, Nikor is forced to chart a careful course, even as he deals with issues of isolation, lost love, helplessness and compromise.
Director’s Note
After working with large cast and huge sets in my last few plays I was on a lookout for a piece which could challenge me to work with one body, voice and an empty stage. I stumbled on Gowri’s Mathemagician, which is a deeply unsettling play and threw me in a state of cheerless astuteness.
It also terrified me as it is a play about treachery, dishonesty, catastrophe, loss, and bottomless lonliness, total isolation from oneself, humanity and the universe. The protagonist – Nikor is left with only one question, “Mein Kaun Huun? (Who am I)?” As Elkunchwar rightly points out, the play very cleverly suggests how Fascists are born, how and why they have mutilated, warped psyches and how they end up.
‘Each of you has his or her own death,
you carry it with you in a secret place from the moment you’re born,
it belongs to you and you belong to it’.
