It is never easy to digest a play that revolves around a misfortune, a trauma or a tragedy. Nirbhaya, at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre is more than just a play it is a scream for bravery and justice of human rights.
Nirbhaya is about the 2012 gang rape incident in India, when a girl was assaulted on a bus on her way home with a male friend. The media outrage had made her voice heard by many other Indian women and sparked them to speak of the trauma they had to face as an Indian female. They called her “Nirbhaya”, Hindi word for the fearless; her pseudonym in newspapers became the reason for these women to tell their life stories with courage.
Some of these stories include that of Poorna Jagannathan who was molested as a child by the family’s relative, Priyanka Bose’s story on her relationship with her younger brother amidst the sexual abuse she received from many men, Rukshar Kabir’s abusive father to the heartbreaking story of Sneha Jawale whose son was taken away as she recovered from kerosene burning done by her husband. Every story was a painful memoir that was catalyzed by the brutal incident of Nirbhaya.
“I saw the controversial documentary about her and it was heartbreaking,” said Kathryn Jeleva a BAFA student in global studies at Eugene Lang College, about Nirbhaya; “the play was equally moving and it highlighted a serious need of social justice reformation in India that must be addressed.”
The minute the theatre opened, a gush of mist started to fill the room with a soothing hum-like chants that build up the atmosphere of Delhi. The performers were seated all around the theatre dressed in black as they prepared to start the show. Amidst the chaotic choreography (perhaps there to highlight the bustling feel of the biggest city in India), each movement was done poignantly giving meanings to even the slightest hand gestures.
Yaël Faber, the show’s director and writer, composed a poetic script that was fueled with the performer’s emotion. The small stage was equipped with fantastic light design and a humble setting of a busted Delhi bus; as the play went on, the bus became more than a mere set. It signified the first spark that ignited an outrage and an outcry for a change to stop sexual violence against women in India and across the world.
Nirbhaya delivered the emotions that many plays with similarly powerful plots failed to, without sounding like a therapy session. It may be for the performers’ heartbreaking experiences or that Faber’s direction was executed excellently to fill the air with tears, anger and sense of hopefulness towards the end of the play.
Faber clearly knew what she was aiming for with Nirbhaya. Every single scene, from the portrayal of groping in the bus at the beginning of the show to the rather beastly and quite disturbing rape scene was well thought giving just the right sense of reality without going to the revolting reenactment of it. The play ended beautifully with a powerful portrayal of a martyr that started changes through a groundbreaking work of performing arts.
NIRBHAYA (In previews, opens April 26 – May 17). Lynn Redgrave Theater, 45 Bleecker St., New York, NY. www.nirbhayatheplay.com. Tickets are available online from $30.