It was one of the world’s worst man-made disasters: the effects of the Bhopal gas tragedy that took place in 1984 resonate even today. Taking a look behind the scenes of the incident, the Thespian Club of IIT Madras recently staged Bhopal written by Rahul Varma, as part of their annual theatre festival, Stagecoach.
The story follows the life of a woman in the slum before the gas explodes, explains Prasanna Venkatesh, who, along with Amrithavarshini Venkatesh, directed the play. “She figures out that there’s some sort of contaminant that’s probably resulting in a lot of miscarriages and reproductive health issues. It also follows the story of Warren Anderson, sending a bright young Indian person back to the country to run Carbide International, which is now Dow Chemical Company. While it is based on the true storyline of the explosion and revolves around various stakeholders in the tragedy, there are other storylines that get integrated into it,” he says.
Prasanna and Amritha picked up the play from Dushyanth Gunasekhar, who directed a production of the play in 2011, with The Madras Players in association with Masquerade Youth Theatre. “Rahul Varma was inspired by his father, a doctor who worked with victims of the tragedy. The incident was a case of criminal negligence and corporate terrorism, which is still relevant today. For us, it was initially a challenge; being a college production, to maintain the same level of intensity and maintain the professional set-up. We stuck to the honesty, and that’s what paid off,” says Prasanna.
So, while they had 22-year-old actors playing Warren Anderson and chief ministers, the message that this was an issue, and still remains an issue, came across during the performance. An LED board displayed pertinent facts and figures for appropriate scenes through the 85-minute play. With the help of professors, and sets by Victor Paulraj and working with Creashakthi, the students staged the performance twice at the Central Lecture Theatre. Although some of the cast and crew will be leaving as it is their final year — final two weeks of college, to be exact — they have ensured that replacements are available, so the play can be staged again.
