Nirbhaya

*****

Lynn Redgrave Theatre, 45 Bleecker Street (at Lafayette), New York

On the evening of December 16th 2012, Jyoti Singh Pandey, a 23-year-old medical student, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted aboard a bus in New Delhi. Days later, she died from her horrific injuries. Jyoti became known as Nirbhaya, meaning “fearless” in Hindi. Outrage and public protest over the attack inflamed a long-smoldering national conversation regarding women’s rights and gender justice in India and beyond. The shock from her death began to slowly lift the cloak of secrecy and shame that masks and perpetuates sexual-based violence.

Throughout this spine tingling production, cast members Priyanka Bose, Rukhsar Kabir, Sneha Jawale, Pamela Sinha, and Poorna Jagannathan relive their painful pasts, which include sexual abuse, marital abuse, a dowry bride burning, and violent rapes.

After years of suppressing their own traumas they channel fearlessness to break the silence and ensure Nirbhaya’s death was not in vain.

Dressed in black the women make their way from out of the audience to a barely lit stage, one arm raised, to each tell their stories. Shrouded in white, Singh hands each of the women a prop with which to tell their story – her brutal experience and its coverage around the world has helped other women to come forward.

Nirbhaya forces us to remember that our humanity can be stripped from us at any moment.

Since premiering the play in Edinburgh in 2013, the cast has grown more aware of how normalised sexual violence has become worldwide.

“I didn’t realize that my story had an impact beyond me. I didn’t know my silence had anything to do with what was going on in the rest of the world,” says Jagannathan.

The unparalleled storyline of Nirbhaya is accompanied by sparse dialogue with the intention of shifting the stigma that surrounds sexual violence. The rest, conveyed by emotion, lighting, and staging, raises the bar for human-rights theatre.

One of the actresses, Sneha Jawale, had never set foot on a stage before being cast in "Nirbhaya." Covered in scars after being doused with kerosene and burned by her husband, she serves as a striking visual reminder of the cost of sexual violence.

"It's more than a play," said Jawale. "It's a message for society.”

This type of production works far beyond, and outside of, the normal constraints of theatre – asking us to question the role of the arts in spreading an important message and how various art form can bring about change and give people, who have been previously suppressed, a voice.

This is a brave, real and memorable piece of work which leaves you speechless.

www.nirbhayatheplay.com

Written and directed by Yael Farber

Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.

WITH: Priyanka Bose, Poorna Jagannathan, Sneha Jawale, Rukhsar Kabir, Japjit Kaur, Pamela Sinha and Ankur Vikal (Ensemble).