WINNER OF THE DORA MAVOR MOORE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING NEW PLAY (2006)

Bombay Black is a love story between a blind man and a dancer.  In a seaside flat, the iron-willed Padma takes money from men so they may watch her daughter, Apsara, perform a mesmerizing dance.  Apsara’s extraordinary beauty and erotically charged dancing cast a powerful spell over her wealthy and famous clientele.  One day, a mysterious blind man named Kamal visits for a private dance.  Kamal is somehow linked to their past.  His secret threatens to change each of their lives forever.

PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE:

I believe that stories are given to writers.  We do not choose stories.  They come to us in dreams, or as voices in our heads, roaring, full of fire, challenging us to take them on. 

When Bombay Black began, all I had was a young woman dancing in an apartment by the sea.  Her dance was one of beauty, sweat, and lust, and everything seemed perfect, except for the blind man lurking in the shadows.  So I asked myself, “How does a blind man fall in love with a dancer?”  For more than a year, I did not write a word.  I kept wondering who this dancer was, and why a blind man would pay to watch her.  What did he want from her?  I thought it was love.  But once I started writing, I realized that a love story is about anything but love.  There is confusion, pain, anger, revenge – one has to live in black until that black is completely consumed.  Perhaps then, with a little nod from the gods, one can taste light. 


Bombay Black premiered in January 2006 at the Theatre Centre, Toronto.  It was commissioned and developed by Nightswimming Theatre and produced by Cahoots Theatre Projects.  It was workshopped and given a public reading at On the Verge, 2005 (National Arts Centre, Ottawa).  The playwright is extremely grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generous support.  The play will have its Vancouver premiere in February 2008 at the Arts Club Theatre.

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Cahoots Theatre Projects (2006)
Director: Brian Quirt