BWW Interviews: Shunya Theatre Director dianne k. webb Talks the Bhopal Tragedy and Rahul Varma's Tragic Play BHOPAL

"Mothers didn't know their children had died, children didn't know their mothers had died and men didn't know their whole families had died." - Ahmed Khan, Bhopal resident on the Bhopal disaster

BWW: Please give us some history on the Bhopal gas leak.

dianne k. webb: In the middle of the night on December 3rd, the Union Carbide plant that had opened in 1969 and produced and stored vast amounts of the most dangerous chemical known to man, methyl isocyanate (MIC), exploded in Bhopal, India - a city of millions.

People were awoken from their sleep unable to breathe and with acute pain in their eyes, which left many of the survivors blind or severely visually impaired along with lifelong respiratory issues they would suffer.

Within the first twenty-four hours there were over 2000 dead women, children, infants, and men. In the following weeks and months, the death toll rose to over tens of thousands.

BWW: The effects of the Bhopal disaster are still being felt in the region today. Does the play highlight this?

dianne k. webb: The play leaves us with the events just days after the explosion. While I cannot speak for the playwright, I believe he feels that we must remember the victims even as this issue is not settled, in courts or otherwise. [Rahul] Varma has written a play about the people of Bhopal at the time of the tragedy to give audiences a chance to more fully understand this tragedy. As the director, one of the reasons I wanted to direct this play is my own understanding that the more we identify with the specific circumstances of people anywhere in the world, the more likely we are to become involved advocates, so we can work toward making sure this never happens again.

BWW: There's not a lot of information on the play, BHOPAL, out there. Could you give us all a description of Rahul Varma's play?

dianne k. webb: The play is set amid the events that led up to the horrific Union Carbide explosion of MIC on December 3, 1984 in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Varma has created a dramatic fictionalization of the lives of seven people-two of whom are based on real people, [Warren] Anderson and Zarina. Along with other characters, Varma brings the audience into the complex web of lies and deceptions, hopes and dreams, greed and ignorance that conspired together to create the accident.

BWW: The structure of the play is interesting. There's three languages, music, singing and dance. What purpose do the structural elements of the play serve?

dianne k. webb: Yes, Varma's short scenes allow a great deal of complex information to be brought to the audience. Characters are developed and the plot thickens in a very short period of time. The use of a single act allows the tension to be maintained until the end and delivers the the downfall and denouement quickly after the main event.

Also, Varma brings us quickly into the streets of India and the inner lives of the characters, from the slum dweller Izzat, played expertly by Deeba Ashraf, to the Canadian NGO doctor whose outcry against the Carbide plant is adeptly captured by Laura Schlecht, and delivers us into the web of political, corporate and emotional corruption woven by characters Devraj Jaganlal, and Sauvé and Anderson. The pressure builds as the play advances toward the inevitable explosion and leaves us amid the ruins with a deeper and more humanized understanding of the Bhopal tragedy.

BWW: What were some of the challenges of directing this piece?

dianne k. webb: Obviously, one of them is that I am not Indian. Nor am I of Indian descent. I have spent a great deal of time interviewing people including the author, Rahul Varma of Montreal, and Anjana Menon who brought the play to my attention and who originally learned about it in Chennai, India where the company she worked with was looking to produce it. Dushyanth Gunashekar and G. D. Prasad of Crea-Shakthi of Chennai were kind enough to share their soundtrack with me as part of my research. I spent hours researching, reading UNESCO files, source materials from India, newspapers, even reports from the companies. I also used my South Asian crew and cast as resources for many of the subtleties of the script.

BWW: How are you translating the Bhopal tragedy to art? What is your aesthetic and directorial approach to the piece?

dianne k. webb: My approach to Bhopal has been to put the characters center stage at every moment. To do that I have chosen to simplify everything-from music to set to costume. I have stripped down the stage so that there is no furniture moving, just the barest pieces-a table, two chairs, and a mat. I have a live tabla player on stage to accent the heartbeat of the city, the lives of the characters, and Bhopal itself. I have used sound where needed to clarify place. I don't want to give everything away, but there are even more surprises as to how I created a "chorus" without a chorus.

My approach is to bring the actors into the time and space of Bhopal. We have worked to develop as a group a better understanding of the tragedy and to portray with honesty the complex emotions written into each character.

BWW: Just researching the event to prepare for our talk, was painful and difficult. Do you you think audiences will put off by the tragic subject matter?

dianne k. webb: I suppose some will stay away as they might avoid a play about the Holocaust or slavery, about Hiroshima, Wounded Knee, or other tragedies. I hope that many, many others will take this opportunity to become more informed and to honor those who have died. And, through this new understanding, become part of the needed global solution to the events that create tragedies like Bhopal.

BWW: Do you have any opinions on the political implications of the Bhopal chemical accident i.e. restitution for the victims, indictment of U.S. foreign policies, and the prosecution of Warren Anderson and Union Carbide?

dianne k. webb: I am not surprised while I stand appalled by the lack of responsibility taken by all parties involved with Bhopal, then and now. I find it unconscionable that the plant still remains in ruins, vats of chemicals still in the open, not one bit of cleaning up of the land or the surrounding area. I do not understand the continued poisoning of the groundwater, the politics and blame game that allow such a mess to stand. I fail to understand why world organizations do not come forward, the NGOs, the activists here and there who do not fight to clean it up while the battle for money and blame rages between the parties involved. The fact that 30 years have gone by since the accident makes it all the more unbelievable. Everyone who survived and their children. if affected, must be cared for, provided for as their lives have been defined by this tragedy. Until the area is cleaned up, that number will continue to grow.

BWW: Please tell me how you came to be the director of BHOPAL. What has been your artistic journey?

dianne k. webb: I came of age in the '70s and remember the day Bhopal happened. I had three small children at the time and was horrified at the images in the paper, the story, and ashamed that an American company, Union Carbide, had created this disaster halfway across the world.

I began directing in Maine many years ago and for 14 of those years directed interactive and improvisational theater on many social issues. Since, I have been directing in Houston over the last five or so years, I have worked with many living playwrights and love bringing their work to the stage. I was thrilled to have a chance to direct Bhopal for Shunya Theatre.

BWW: Do you have any advice for aspiring theatre artists?

dianne k. webb: Do all aspects of theater. Take classes. Hone your craft. Respect that you come from a history of theater folk who have worked to evolve performing arts into what we know it to be today. Become part of that tradition by doing the work of it. Take it seriously. It is a grand art.

Shunya Theatre's production of BHOPAL runs November 13 - November 23, 2014; Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm; Sundays at 3 pm at Spring Street Studios Studio 101 (1824 Spring St., Houston, TX 77007). For tickets and more information, visit http://shunyatheatre.org/.

Photo courtesy of Shunya Theatre

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