The charm of Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s world premiere of “The Lunchbox” can’t be overstated.
Based on the 2013 film of the same name, it is, to put it simply, a must-see. It is that rare beast: an art film that seems to have been heightened, intensified, not merely gussied up, by its new iteration as a musical.
In Mumbai, Ila (Kuhoo Verma), an unhappily married young woman and mother, sends a hot lunch off to her husband at work daily, packed into a tiffin (a multi-layered lunchpail, the Indian equivalent of a bento box), just as thousands of other city housewives do. A complex network of dabbawallas deliver the tiffins all over the city, returning the empties, never misdelivering.
Except this once.
A chronically depressed office worker, Fernandes (a dour, appealingly nuanced portrayal by Manu Narayan), in his fifties, about to retire and still mourning the death of his wife, accidentally receives the tiffin meant for Ila’s husband. Soon enough, little notes are exchanged between Fernandes and Ila, and a sight-unseen relationship develops. Simple as it sounds, it could be the making of a sweet romance.
But it’s more. With a book and co-lyrics by the original filmmaker Ritesh Batra; music and co-lyrics by the Lazours; and the delicate, empathetic direction of Rachel Chavkin — plus orchestration and a wandering violinist — “The Lunchbox” develops at just the right pace and is rich with layers and layers of modulated character development.
There’s Auntie (Anisha Nagarajan), who lives upstairs from Ila and cares for a husband in a long-term coma. There’s Shaik (Aathaven Tharmarajah), the over-eager new guy in the office, hired to be trained by Fernandes as his replacement.
Each character has a story that dovetails with the other main characters, forming a pattern of existential musing: “I think we forget things if we have no one to tell them to,” says Fernandes.
Character by character, songs in “The Lunchbox” erupt so naturally and are so full of longing; it makes one wonder why people don’t express themselves in musical form all the time.
Choreographer Reshma Gajjar directs a chorus that enriches the story of Ila and Fernandes with texture and humor and creates an immersive, overarching picture of a city full of heartache and longing — and joy.
Everything works, from scenic designer Mimi Lien’s towering set of apartment buildings in Mumbai; to activities seen through balconies and kitchen windows; to smooth transformations into street scenes and office interiors. There’s even a charming little streetcar where riders jostle for space, clutching overhead straps.
Performed as a long, almost mesmerizing one-act, “The Lunchbox” invites audiences to be part of its microcosm, its teeming, vibrant, intensely colorful city in which lost souls wander and maybe, even by accident, ultimately find one another.
Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s “The Lunchbox” runs through June 28 at the Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets are $25 to $135 at berkeleyrep.org.
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