'The Invisible River'

A play that pits Science against Faith

The Invisible River, a remarkable new play by Gautam Raja which will be staged at Chowdiah Memorial on June 24, explores newly discovered scientific facts which reveal, controversially, that the holy river Ganges keeps million of Hindus healthy through its self-cleansing properties.

The play will be premiered in England at the Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadler’s Wells on July 18, 2008. A British-Indian collaboration between Theatre Royal Plymouth, and the Artistes’ Repertory Theatre of Bangalore, India, the production is funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Gautam Raja’s play straddles the frontier between science and faith and is based on research by Dr Mukund Thattai of the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore. Thattai (with a PhD from MIT) has shown that there is substance to the belief of millions of Hindus in the healing power of the waters of the Ganges.

But the discovery that bateriophages - viruses which eat bacteria - purify the water through their unseen action could have a dramatic impact on those whose lives are based on a different kind of reality.

How will this discovery affect Dr Ajay (Pritham Kumar) and his ailing mother (Sukhita Aiyer)? How can Jayant (Harish Seshadri), the Hindu priest, cope with the scientific ‘mumbo jumbo’? More practically, how can Uma (Veena Appiah), the scientist, and Padma (Sukhita Aiyer), the politician, use this discovery to their own ends?
Directed by Ruchika Chanana, (who has an Advanced Diploma in Directing from ARTTS International in Leeds), the cut and thrust of these human situations and the intense questions they raise, will keep the audience pondering long after they have left the theatre.

Gautam Raja, who attended the Royal Court International Residency, has seen his plays performed all over India and abroad. Among them, ‘Vydehi’ was put on at the Lark Theatre in New York city and at the Chautaqua Institution in New York.

A volume of his collected plays is available on Amazon. Gautam will be signing copies of ‘The Invisible River’ at the Lilian Baylis Theatre.

Artistes’ Repertory Theatre (ART), the Bangalore-based English language theatre company, has staged nearly 70 productions in the last 26 years in India and the UK. For further information contact Jagdish Raja at jagraja@gmail.com