March 2024—Set in Surrey Memorial Hospital, Himmat is a powerful story about resilience, redemption, and the strength of family love. Told through flashbacks, the play explores the lives of a father and daughter born generations and miles apart. While Banth (Munish Sharma) awaits his cancer treatment, secrets are revealed to his daughter Ajit (Gavan Cheema), and the two begin to interrogate their memories and discover how their family dynamics have changed over time.
After premiering at Vancouver’s Cultch in 2022, Himmat is making its Surrey debut. This is something of a homecoming for the play, as playwright and performer Gavan Cheema grew up locally. She said, “It’s pretty magical that the play is coming to the Surrey Arts Centre. I literally live five minutes up the road, and I have been coming to Bear Creek Park since I was a baby. To know that the play is making its debut in the city that its set in, and the city that it’s for, is so incredibly special.”
Gavan wrote Himmat drawing on her family’s experiences when her dad was ill. The play is loosely based on his life and his story, although Gavan says she gave herself permission to be creative with the facts, to make the play humourous and relatable to a wider audience. Taking on such a personal project brought Gavan closer to her father, who has been an integral part of the play’s journey from its development workshops, right up to its first performance. She said, “As cheesy as it sounds, working on this play gave me a better understanding of who I am and where I come from.”
Himmat is an honest depiction of a working-class family’s struggle with addiction, physical labour and finding connection. Gavan said writing the play also gave her a better appreciation of the sacrifices her parents made when they moved to Canada. “These were things that my parents had never really talked about, and that is quite common in South Asian households; people don’t talk about the struggles, because they want to protect their kids from it.”
The play is performed in English and Punjabi, a choice Gavan says adds to the audience experience. “I think when there are moments of the play that are just in Punjabi, people understand that it is alienating for a reason. It was a deliberate and intentional choice woven into the play. When my parents first moved to Canada they didn’t understand English for a really long time, and so by having parts of the play in Punjabi, it helps audience members connect with that experience, no matter where they are from themselves.”
She said her dad and family love the play, and says it is meaningful for him to see the story of an immigrant like him being shared. Gavan said, “What is great about my dad being so actively involved is that he has shared this journey with his friends and people he knows, many of whom might not normally come into a theatre space. It’s been really great seeing Himmat reach a wider audience other than just a traditional theatre audience.”
At its heart, Gavan says the play is about storytelling. She said, “Yes, my dad is a dump truck driver and that’s integral to his identity, but he’s also a storyteller. When my friends saw Himmat, it was no surprise to them to see my dad’s story on stage, it’s an epic one and he always tells it with a little extra spice. Whenever he would give us rides as teenagers, to Bhangra practice or wherever, he would share so many stories about life in the Punjab, or from his childhood. Stories that helped him remember, and stories that helped us not forget where we came from.”
Audience advisory: coarse language and mature themes including substance abuse and racism. Minor strobe effects. Recommended age: 12+
Showtimes
- Thursday, April 18 | 7:30pm (Preview)
- Friday, April 19th | 12:30pm | School Matinee. For more information, and to reserve tickets contact: [email protected]
- Friday, April 19 | 8pm
- Saturday, April 20 | 2pm (+ post-show talkback)
- Saturday, April 20 | 8pm
Image Credit: Gavan Cheema and Munish Sharma in the 2022 production of Himmat at the Cultch; set design by Kimira Reddy, costume design by Elika Mojtabaei, lighting design by Parjad Sharifi, projection design by David Mesiha; photo by S. Race.
