Review: (Montreal) Bhopal

Bhopal, the tragedy and the play, revisited
Teesri Duniya remounts successful play for 30th anniversary of worst industrial disaster
by Sarah Deshaies
@sarahdeshaies

December 2nd, 1984: a valve breaks in an underground storage tank in a pesticide plant. The resulting cloud of lethal gas seeps from the Union Carbide plant to envelope a huge swath of territory - including Bhopal, a slum town mere kilometres away. 

The noxious fumes leave hundreds of dead humans and animals in its wake; those who escape a harrowing death are plagued with breathing difficulties, blindness, organ failure and other ghastly physical injuries. Today, the final death toll is believed to have spiralled up to as many as 25,000.

The Question... Rahul Varma on Bhopal

When safety is sacrificed for profit, there must be justice
by Rahul Varma 

[This week The Question... asked Rahul Varma, Artistic Director of Teesri Duniya Theatre, about the background of Teesri Duniya's presentation of Bhopal including their upcoming commemorative presentation at Segal Centre for the Performing Arts January 16 to February 2. Born in India, Mr. Varma is a playwright and artistic director of Teesri Duniya Theatre which he co-founded in 1981. In 1998, with Kapil Bawa, he co-founded the theatre quarterly alt.theatre: cultural diversity and the stage.  He writes both in Hindi and English, a language he acquired as an adult. Some of his recent plays are Land Where the Trees Talk, No Man’s Land, Trading Injuries (radio drama), Counter Offence, Bhopal, Zahreeli Hawa, Truth and Treason, State of Denial and Khamosh Chiragan Di Dastaan.  His plays have been translated into French, Italian, Hindi and Punjabi. He is honoured to have worked with India’s pre-eminent artist Late Dr. Habib Tanvir. ]

On the night of December 2–3, 1984, the Union Carbide Pesticide plant located in Bhopal, India exploded, engulfing the city with a poisonous gas. Small 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 didn’t matter -- Bhopal had become the largest peace-time gas chamber in history. Over 25,000 people have died to date and counting. 

The play Bhopal is about one of the world’s worst industrial disasters located in the city of Bhopal, India. The play derives its title from the city’s name.

Review: (Montreal) Letters to My Grandma

(photo by Mateo H. Casis)

Intolerance through the Ages
by Chad Dembski

Anusree Roy is a playwright/actor I have known about for many years from my time in Toronto to her continuing extremely successful career across Canada. However, Teesri's production is the first time her solo play, Letters to My Grandma is performed by another actress.  

The piece starts with a big announcement of an upcoming wedding for the main character in the play and her desire to re-connect with her grandmother.  We learn there is one letter from her grandmother that she has not opened and instantly I became curious what had happened to their relationship.  We are taken back to the war (World War II) where her grandmother struggles to get on a truck that will take her out of the war zone and to a boat.  An instant divide between Hindu and Muslim people is immediately brought to our attention and that this tension is deep and full of mistrust and hatred.  

Review: (Montreal) Where the Blood Mixes

(photo credit: Mateo Hernandez)

the bitter winter seeps in through the cracks
Teesri Duniya forces us to pay attention
by Jessica Wei

Canada's a fairly unassuming country. We're known for confusing politics, casual beers, icy temperatures and warm smiles. However, any true Canadian – especially anyone who lives in Quebec – knows, when it's hot, it's sweltering and when it's cold, it numbs to the bone. Some of our history is like that, too. We love our proud moments in history: the invention of insulin, the Battle of Vimy Ridge,  passing universal health care in '62, our tumultuous road to victory during the Summit Series in '72 against the Soviets, the entire Vancouver Olympics in '08 (including our tumultuous road to victory in Men's Hockey)... warm, friendly, glowing moments engraved on our currency, celebrated in our newspapers on anniversary years, boasted in our textbooks. 

But the bitter winter seeps in through the cracks. Those are times we just don't comment on the weather. If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all, and most of us just don't say anything at all. 

Review: (Montreal) State of Denial

Docu...Drama

Rahul Varma confronts the big issues again

by Chris Lane

Denial comes in many forms, and can effectively erase the memories of the oppressed victims of atrocities untold. Local playwright Rahul Varma seeks to uncover the personal stories that have been suppressed and present them in a stark and moving new play, State of Denial. The production is presented by Teesri Duniya, of which Varma is Artistic Director, a theatre company with a 31-year history of  politically relevant plays that depict diverse aspects of Canada’s cultural minorities. 

In writing this play, Varma derived a fictional story from multiple true stories garnered from years of interviews as a part of the research for Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by Genocide, War and Other Human Rights Violations. State of Denial is being presented as a part of Life Stories Montreal and is directed by Deborah Forde.

First-Person - Rahul Varma on State of Denial

State of Denial: In memories of grandmothers who lived to tell 

© Rahul Varma, March 11, 2012

State of Denial is about Sahana, a Turkish Muslim woman in her nineties, who has devoted her life to assisting Armenian survivors of genocide, and about Odette, a twenty something Rwanda-born Canadian filmmaker, who travels to Turkey to investigate stories of genocide. These two women differ in their nationality, ethnicity, religion, cultural background and age – but they have one thing in common: A well-kept personal secret, which if uncovered, will change their life forever. Initially, the two women are suspicious of each other. They question and quiz, comply and compete, and challenge and contradict each other – and in so doing, they become the best of the friends. On her deathbed, Sahana reveals her chilling secret to Odette and Odette promises to make Sahana’s secret public at any cost. On her mission to make public Sahana’s secret, Odette ends up revealing her own. With that a denial ends and a new life begins. 

Review: (Montreal) The Poster

Jade Hassouné in The Poster

(photo: ADARNA Photography)

The Dangerous Subject of Palestine

No matter what you say...someone will be pissed off

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Like abortion or capital punishment, Middle-East politics, specifically those surrounding Palestine, is a subject you do not discuss lightly. Simply, there are tempers ready to explode on both sides of the issue and a playwright needs to wade into these waters eyes-open, aware of the mines everywhere.