Mother of 1084
a Staged Reading
Presented by Expand the Canon
& Bay Area Drama Company
Written by Mahasweta Devi
Directed by Ranjita Chakravarty
Jun 22 at 7 pm
City Lights Theater
529 S. 2nd Street, San Jose, CA 95112
What is the personal cost of a revolution? Two years after her younger son has been brutally killed in a police encounter, the rest of Sujata’s family has moved on, eager to disown the "dishonor" their son brought upon them. But Sujata herself is still struggling to cope with her anguish. As she embarks upon a journey to understand her son she recognizes her own oppression as a mother, wife, and woman. Mahasweta Devi’s powerful and deeply human play, Mother of 1084, examines grief, love, and the cost of revolution.
Mother of 1084 (originally Haajaar Churashir Maa in Bengali) was made into a Hindi film in 1998 - Hazaar Chauraasi ki Maa directed by Govind Nihalani and starring Jaya Bachchan as Sujata.
Mother of 1084 is a play from Hedgepig’s Expand the Canon lists.
English | 90 mins | Age 12+
Cast & Crew
Mahasweta Devi
Playwright Mahasweta Devi (1926-2016), is one of Bengal’s foremost modern writers. She was also a social activist and spent many years in the poor and tribal areas of Bengal. In a rare occurrence she has been the recipient of both, the Ramon Magsaysay award for her social activism and the Jnanpith award, India’s highest literary award.
Ranjita Chakravarty
Ranjita is excited to be directing the stage reading of Mahasweta Devi's Mother of 1084. Prior to this she has directed two Main Stage productions for BADCo – The Square Root of a Sonnet in the 2021-22 season, and Water, also by Mahasweta Devi, in Oct 2022. During the pandemic she directed Poile Sengupta’s Alipha for BADCo on Zoom.
Her other stage directorial credits include two Tagore classics, Chitra – The Warrior Princess and Kingdom of Cards, and Madhuri Shekhar’s A Nice Indian Boy with Enacte. As a theatre actor, Ranjita has essayed many roles in the last two decades such as Ratan Ki Ma in Asghar Wajahat’s Jis Lahore, Marjorie in Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime, Dadi in Singh-Wadhera’s The Parting to name a few. In her latest outing, she plays Nazia Sahiba in BADCo’s Where Did I Leave My Purdah? in June 2024.
Ranjita played a recurring role as Nirmala paati (grandmother) in Seasons 2, 3 and 4 of Mindy Kaling's Never Have I Ever. Her other filmography includes Perfect Mismatch with Anupam Kher and Boman Irani and many indie short films.
Ranjita is forever grateful to her children Arjun and Alisha who encourage her and to Stanford University where she works during the day, so she can be a thespian by night.
About Expand the Canon
Both a celebration and a call to action, Expand the Canon demands space in the canon of classics for more diverse women playwrights through history, many of whom were underproduced or utterly un-produced in their lifetimes. How? Each year, Hedgepig Ensemble releases a curated list of 9 excellent classic plays by women from 1600-1980, curated by a committee of 30+ professionals and educators. Why? Because by re-casting the past, we can re-shape the future. By insisting that excellent works by a diverse group of gender expansive playwrights be regarded as classics, we can redefine theatre’s values. And by staging these stories in our communities, we can shift culture. Visit expandthecanon.com to view all 36 classic plays you should know!