SINGAPORE - In late July, 1983, a horde of irate men armed with weapons gathered outside the gate of 17-year-old Aravinth Kumarasamy's house in Sri Lanka.
It took them hardly any time to break in, smashing windows and storming through the house.
But young Kumarasamy and his family had already fled their abode amid the throes of the Sri Lankan Civil War. They would never return to live in the place they once called home.
"Being a refugee in your own homeland is a double whammy," Kumarasamy, 55, who is now the artistic director of traditional dance company Apsaras Arts, says. "There was a feeling of insecurity and not being safe in your own home."
Years later, he would draw inspiration from his personal experience of being displaced to conceptualise theatre production Agathi, meaning "refugee" in Tamil.
He stresses that the dance-theatre work is not autobiographical. Rather, it tells the universal story of a refugee who embarks on a journey to rebuild his home and identity, while struggling with prejudice and trauma.
"This story is not mine," Kumarasamy says. "But my story helped to put flesh and skin to the poetry that we were reading, so my dancers could understand what it was beyond words."
The 80-minute production weaves together theatre, poetry and the classical Indian dance bharatanatyam in a collaborative work with home-grown theatre company Wild Rice.
Agathi's dramaturg Ivan Heng, 57, calls it "virtuosic, but at the same time, very soulful".
"The story of the refugee is a tale as old as time," says the Wild Rice founding artistic director.
"I was frankly quite riveted and moved that the company chose to address this very contemporary and pressing issue through the form of Indian classical dance."
The reimagined piece melds theatre with bharatanatyam to create "something dramatic, cohesive and compelling" for audiences to better understand and reflect on what they know of refugees, he adds.
Agathi premiered in 2017 at the Esplanade and has since toured globally in France, India and the United Kingdom before making its way back to Singapore and onto the Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre thrust stage in Funan mall this year.
The thrust stage, which extends into the audience, will not only make the performance more intimate but also pay homage to the cultural roots of bharatanatyam, as the ancient dance form began on a similar type of stage in temples.
"We're bringing it back to where it originated," Kumarasamy says.
Owing to the political turmoil in his homeland in the 1980s, he has yet to fully reunite with his sister and parents as they have been dispersed across the globe.
But he says that despite this, he has found solace in the arts. He hopes Agathi will be able to touch audiences with its impassioned illustration of the plight of refugees and dispel misconceptions about the displaced.
"If people can dwell on the message of the work, that will be our greatest satisfaction."
Book it/ Agathi | Refugee
Where: Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre @ Wild Rice, Level 4 Funan Mall, 107 North Bridge Road
When: April 2 to 4, 3 and 7pm
Admission: $25, $35 and $55 via Sistic (call 6348 5555 or go to the Sistic website)
Info: Wild Rice's website
