Anusree Roy as Chaya. Photo by Aviva Armour-Ostroff.
Set in Calcutta, India Pyaasa is a play that explores the issues surrounding the caste system. The cast system is a discriminatory form of social stratification into which every Hindu is born. At the bottom of this hierarchy is the Untouchable sect, a group which is seen as sub-human by the members of the Hindu caste system.
Pyaasa tells the story of an eleven-year old Untouchable girl named Chaya. Chaya’s mother begs a woman of a higher caste to give Chaya a job at a local tea stall. In time the owner of the tea stall sexually assaults her, resulting in Chaya’s loss of what little value she had as a marital commodity in a sect that values marriage above all else for women. Pyaasa is Chaya’s story from childhood to adulthood, a journey that occurs in ten days.
Written & Performed by Anusree Roy
Directed & Dramaturged by Thomas Morgan Jones
Lighting Design by David DeGrow
Costume Painting by Evan Ayotte
“This truism is at the heart of Pyaasa, but rather than have the play just be a treatise on the evils of the caste system, Roy wants to give a voice to these marginalized people. Pyaasa is a poignant, character-driven play about survival, where even the Untouchables victimize their own.” – Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail
“Roy’s physical control is extraordinary; so is her empathy. She’s able to switch instantly, and with total conviction, from gnarled mother to joyous child. She might be playing Juliet and the Nurse simultaneously. With a bare set, and David DeGrow’s precision lighting, Thomas Morgan Jones’ production gives the actress-author everything she needs. She gives everything in return. This is a rare kind of protest drama. It goes beyond anger.” – Robert Cushman, The National Post
“The strength of Roy’s performing is the same as her writing: the specificity of emotion. She isn’t writing a political document or a social diatribe. She’s telling the story of one sweet, innocent soul and how it is brutally destroyed.” – Richard Ouzounian, The Toronto Star
Winner of 2 Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Outstanding Performance; Outstanding New Play)
