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Bhopal

On the night of December 3, 1984, Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, exploded, engulfing the city in a billow of deadly poisonous fumes. Children fell like flies, men and women vainly scurried for safety like wounded animals, only to collapse, breathless and blinded by the gas. By morning, the death toll was over 500, by sunset, 2,500. By the following day, numbers had no meaning. That night, Bhopal became the largest peacetime gas chamber in history. The play, written by Rahul Varma and directed by Joanna Sherman, reveals the human stories within the complex political and economic web that located a chemical plant in Bhopal and leads to human tragedy.

Performances

Bond Street Theatre and Epic Actor’s Workshop presented Bhopal:

November 18, 2012, 4 PM at the South Asian Theatre Festival.
Crossroads Theatre. New Brunswick, NJ.

December 3, 2012 at the Natyamela International Drama Festival. Kolkata, India.

December 6, 2012 at the Kathmandu International Theatre Festival. Aarohan International Theatre. Kathmandu, Nepal.

December 8, 2012 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts Centrestage Theatre Festival. Mumbai, India.

Featuring (in alphabetical order):
Arpana Bhattacharya, Soumendu Bhattarchaya, Shailendra Khurana, Michael McGuigan, Gargi Mukherjee, Sajal Mukherjee, Anna Zastrow.
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Chorus:
Ilanna Saltzman, Birsa Mukherjee Chatterjee, Renee Bhattacharya, Barkha Kishnani, Heddy Lahman, Puja Shourie.

Director: Joanna Sherman
Stage Manager: Julian Goldhagen
Video and Audio design: Michael McGuigan
Set Design: Joanna Sherman / Michael McGuigan
Lighting Design: Olivia Harris
Costume Design: Barkha Kishnani

About the Play

Devraj, an Indian businessman trained at the knee of Anderson, the American CEO of Karbide International, returns to his native country to head Karbide’s Bhopal plant. A man of missionary zeal, he comes armed with a purpose: to introduce India to the miraculous properties of Karbide Thunder, the latest chemical weapon in the arsenal against pests.

Sonya Labonté, a Canadian doctor, is suspicious. People near the plant are getting sick. Babies are being born with horrible abnormalities; she gathers evidence and mounts her case.

Bhopal examines how complex forces struggled to bury the truth, expose it, or shape it to the needs of self-interest, and how an unspeakable disaster ended all speculation. Ultimately it is about —and for— those without means or influence, whose voices are seldom heard and who are made to pay the price.

About the Ensembles

BOND STREET THEATRE creates entertaining and relevant performances that exemplify theatre’s ability to cross cultural borders and address the social and environmental issues that affect us all, globally. The company works primarily in post-war areas and regions in conflict, collaborating with local artists to create informational theatre that addresses social issues.

EPIC ACTORS WORKSHOP, founded in 1988, showcases and underscores the importance of South Asian Theater within the New Jersey and New York communities and in the larger context of mainstream American culture. Epic Actors Workshop has curated and produced the South Asian Theatre Festival since 2006, with the mission to connect the diverse cultural entities of South Asia, breaking through geographical and cultural boundaries and at the same time celebrating the differences.

About the Playwright: Rahul Varma is a playwright, artistic director, essayist and an activist who migrated to Canada from his birth country India in 1976. In 1981, he co-founded Teesri Duniya Theatre, which is dedicated to producing socially and politically relevant theatre examining issues of cultural representation and diversity in Canada. Rahul became the company’s artistic director in 1986.