 |
| Vaneshran Arumugam (left) and Emmanuel Castis (right) |
ON
Saturday, 28 September we held the fourth Moral Sense Colloquium, which focused
on cross cultural morality, human and animal. As part of the program, two
seasoned actors and musicians from South Africa, Vaneshran Arumugam and
Emmanuel Castis performed their work, SONGS OF STORY MEN. We witnessed a moving,
multicultural feast that weaved a story of two men and one shared love in New
York. There was tension, conflict, and yet above all brotherhood. Everything
was told through a medley of crisp song and sprightly movement, a sharing of
tones through the textures of a steel-string guitar and a nylon-string guitar.
Every moment of the performance was well orchestrated to achieve maximum
effect. There was Indian chanting and yoga-like rhythms along with light shared
from one man to another. Words consisted of texts from Shakespeare to popular
songs. The audience was engaged in part of the performance, and everyone I
spoke to afterward confirmed having a deeply satisfying experience. I know I
did. The lighting and sound engineer was Guy de Lancey.
Among
the many guiding questions of the Colloquium, here are a few that would have
been addressed by Songs of Story Men: What is cross-cultural morality? What
principles and standards of behavior are shared among cultures? How do values,
beliefs, and practices differ among cultures? And as Charles Darwin says, in The Descent of Man, “The following
proposition seems to me in a high degree probable – namely, that any animal
whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, would inevitably acquire a
moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers had become as
well developed, or nearly as well developed, as in man.” Today we’d say
“humankind” and not “man,” but the point is that Vaneshran Arumugam and
Emmanuel Castis, through their artistry of words, music, and song, epitomize
the type of universal moral sense, evident even among animal species, Darwin
alludes to.
IN
their own words, here’s a bit of what Arumugam and Castis say, put together
especially for the event program by their colleague and manager, Jacqueline
Acres, of Sixface Creatives: “Songs of Story Men is an
experiential meditation on cultural relationships and story. It aims to incite
the imagination and evoke the emotions of the audience into drawing together
different musical, literary and performance styles and techniques into a cohesive
“narrative.” The piece aims to present a thinking, feeling platform for
experiencing one’s own reflections and glimmers of memory... The creation and
curation of content is evolving and arises from and in response to the actual
life experience of the performers, as men, as children of immigrants, as
Africans... and as storytellers.”
About The Performers.
Vaneshran Arumugam is a veteran of the South African and
International independent film scene, and a film maker in his own right with
the independent offbeat hit, “Actorholic.” On stage, he has played the part of
parts – Hamlet – for the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, while in South
Africa he has become the very image of Othello gracing the cover of the Oxford
University press edition of the play. Vaneshran graduated with a Master’s
degree in Consciousness in Performance as a Ford Fellow in 2008, which first
brought him to New York where he studied at Columbia University under Kristin
Linklater. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at St. Francis College in
2013, teaching and performing. Vaneshran and his wife Jacqueline have been
selected as a winner in the competitive global social innovation challenge 2019
(Civil Society Academy) in recognition of their innovative vision for the arts
in social design, Living University.
Emmanuel Castis became a household name through his
character Steve in the popular South African drama, Isidingo. Since then he has
been on film sets and stages all around the world. Having played a role in
major soaps/dramas in South Africa (Sevende Laan, Erfsondes, Scandal) and the
United States (General Hospital, Days of our Lives), Emmanuel is a well-known
star of the screen. Emmanuel started his theatre career in Bloemfontein on the
Sandt Du Plesis stage playing Rocky in the Rocky Horror show (1999). He has
gone on to star in a host of musical and live theatre productions, including,
Jersey Boys and Grease. His other claim to fame is beating Trevor Noah in
strictly come dancing season 4, 2008, proving that white men can dance!
Emmanuel released an album in 2008 called South of Nowhere. He now gigs
regularly with his band, Dalliance.
