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.