Masala Dabba (review)

Spoilers ahoy! 

 Here's a fun fact.  Trying to guess the meaning of this play's title, Masala Dabba, I was guessing it referred to an Indian recipe of some kind which becomes the focus of some inter-generational tension, probably played out in and around and about a restaurant.

I was almost totally wrong.

The title is much better than that, referring instead to a traditional Indian spice box. So rather than refer to a specific food, it calls back to the ingredients which make up those dishes you yourself choose to make or consume.

A far better metaphor.  Wendy Graf's play does indeed focus on a family--Nishi Byrd (Ansuya Nathan), her husband Charlie (Timylle Adams), their daughter Tina (Jon Joseph Gentry), and Nishi's mother Aditi Dashi (Nandina Minocha) who has come all the way from a small village in India to visit her daughter's family for the very first time in Berkeley.  You can probably guess already some secret strain vibrates between Nishi and Aditi.  It doesn't help when the latter makes some comments which could easily come across--and are interpreted as--racist about her African American son-in-law.

One might expect such a set-up to flow in a certain direction, a plot outline governing the shape and tenor of each scene.  I want to emphasize this play breaks those rules, a fact I found very refreshing.  The ebb and flow remains mostly subtle, albeit unmistakable.  Each scene ends on what clearly is supposed to feel like a tender cliffhanger, a hint of secrets to learn, pains to be understood.  And they are that.

Here comes my only real complaint.  The production falls into a series of traps, which altogether do not (I want to make that very clear--do NOT) unravel what the writer and actors are doing.  But there are hiccups.  Many scenes are quite brief, and between them are (rather short) set shifts that distracted.  The set included an elaborate window piece in the back, which gave a sense of what this home felt like but did nothing else.  More, since the stage had this glorious cyclorama directly behind the set, I longed for the colors there to change in reference to what was happening on stage.  Better yet--projections onto that surface (if that is feasible which I don't know).  

This is a fairly subtle complaint.  Yet the impact, while subtle, was felt and gave me some trouble entering into the tale.

Fortunately, I liked the characters and found the hints of mystery compelling, with a slow series of revelations which tugged at my heart.  Central to all this is Tina meeting her grandmother for the very first time, who finds startling bliss in getting to know her grandchild.  Tina, eager to learn about her mother's heritage, discovers something new and exciting, and the thrill of that feels very real, very moving.  Just as the resentments between mother and daughter never feel formulaic, but indeed very logical.  This play does not relate the coming of a storm, but a shifting of a tide.  And there is much beauty in that.  Beauty and sadness.  Anger and forgiveness.  Confession and, yes, cooking.

Central is the Masala Dabba brought from India which ends up an important talking point, not least because the stories associated with each spice.  Very intimate, very thought- and emotion-provoking.  

Masala Dabba plays Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2pm until September 14, 2025 at the International City Theatre, 330 E. Seaside Way, Long Beach, CA 90802.