A PICTURE OF HEALTH Will Embark on UK Tour

This autumn, Theatre of Debate is set to take to the road for the first time since the pandemic with the world premiere of Sudha Bhuchar’s A Picture of Health, a play about vaccination, variolation, colonisation, decolonisation, vaccine hesitancy and the compelling role of the women in the Royal family in early 19th century, Southern India.

Mysore, Southern India, in 1805 -  Princess Devajammani arrives at the royal court to marry Krishnaraja Wadiyar III. They are both 12 years old and he is the newly anointed ruler of this Indian kingdom.  But Devajammani soon finds herself recruited for a more momentous cause - to publicise and promote the smallpox vaccine. Her unwitting role is captured in a painting commissioned by the East India Company.  Their aim - to encourage participation in the vaccination programme.

A Picture of Health is inspired by Irish painter Thomas Hickey’s portrait, The Three Queens of Mysore, dubbed “one of the most important scientific paintings in the history of medicine in India.”.  The play tells the story behind the picture – a tale of politics, power, and persuasion by the East India Company to introduce the world’s first ever vaccine, discovered by Edward Jenner, to India, their biggest colonial enterprise.

Designed for young adult audiences the play will tour schools in London, West Yorkshire and the Manchester area this October before returning to London with a public performance at Tara Theatre on the 24th. In true Theatre of Debate tradition, every performance is followed by a facilitated debate and the play will be filmed to be accessible, alongside extensive education resources. The text is published by Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury and is part of their Lit in Colourinitiative, to support teachers in accessing texts by writers of colour. 

The cast comprises John McAndrew as Thomas Hickey/ Mark Wilks/ Harry, Rea Malhotra Mukhtyar as Rajamata Lakshmammani  / Arjun’s mother, Nim Gill as Younger Queen Devajammani (YQ) / Devika and Adrian Paul Jeyasingham  as Arjun/ Purnaiya.

A Picture of Health is written by Sudha Bhuchar, the director is Nigel Townsend, design is by Rachana Jadhav and original music is composed by Tate Hingorani-Short.

A Picture of Health was made possible by the generosity of actor Peter Stenson (1934 to 2020) who left a  £150,000 bequest to enable the commissioning of the play and to fund a national tour aimed at young people.

Sudha Bhuchar says, ‘I have been as fascinated by uncovering the story behind this painting, as by the painter Thomas Hickey, who petitioned to be appointed the ‘official Historical and Portrait painter to the East India company’. His ambition was to travel the country and capture ordinary people of all faiths as well as his official commissions. He wanted to ‘illustrate and adorn with laurels from the British annals, this page of Indian history’. His paintings that survive are the lucrative commissions and in weaving in ordinary, everyday lives into my play, I imagined what else he would have sketched and committed to art. I was also blown away by the story of how Jenner’s smallpox vaccine travelled around the globe and the role of children in ensuring a chain of supply. The weaving of science and art is challenging and the parallels to our contemporary world are stark as illustrated by the image of this painting going viral online in India in 2020. The young Queen Devajammani has been taken into people’s hearts. I hope the characters and situations I invented will animate her story and provoke much debate.’

Nigel Townsend says, “A Picture of Health has its roots in this true story from the 19th century India which has the power to resonate with us today, touching on issues of colonialism, vaccine resistance, the role of women, class and status. It was vital to me, following Peter Stenson’s generous bequest to Theatre of Debate that we did everything possible to bring the play alive and to stimulate conversations around those subjects”

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