THE INVISIBLE HAND

Written By Ayad Akhtar

Directed by Sindu Singh

March 22nd to March 30th

Sunnyvale Theater

550 E Remington Dr, Sunnyvale

In remote Pakistan, a successful Wall Street trader is kidnapped by an Islamic militant group. With no one negotiating his release, he agrees to an unusual plan to earn his own ransom by helping his captors master and manipulate the world's commodity and currency markets. This edge-of-the-seat thriller by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar is a chilling look at the inglorious nexus of human greed, the world of high finance and international terrorism and the devastating ramifications of individual actions on global power and politics.

115 min | Ages 14+

“Like [his] sizzling drama Disgraced, Mr. Akhtar’s shrewd play [THE INVISIBLE HAND] raises probing questions about the roots of the Islamic terrorism that has rattled the world for the last decade and more…[It] makes a forceful point about the seemingly ineradicable terrorism roiling the Middle East. Inspired though it may be by religious ideology, it is necessarily fueled, like most other movements that drive cultural change, by the brute power of money.” 

—The New York Times. 

“The prime theme is pulsing and alive: when human lives become just one more commodity to be traded, blood eventually flows in the streets.”

– Financial Times

“THE INVISIBLE HAND is far more politically provocative [than Disgraced], opening as it does in a Pakistani prison where an American banker is being held for ransom. Confounding initial indications, the play is not a captive narrative about pain and torture but a scary (and dreadfully funny) treatise on the universality of human greed.” 

—Variety

“THE INVISIBLE HAND is a hand-wringing, throat-clenching thriller that rarely lets up over the course of two hours…your focus is kept on the interplay of ideology and plot development, which is Akhtar’s wheelhouse.” 

—New York Magazine

Photos

Alan Coyne (NICK)

This is Alan's first show with Bay Area Drama Company. He has previously worked with We Players, SF Shakes, Custom Made, Livermore Shakes, Golden Thread, Indra's Net, and Lafayette Town Hall Theater, among others. You can see him again this May in The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective at Central Works in Berkeley, and his short play, Sir Kay, will be read at this year's SF Olympians Festival in November.

Aditya Thakur (BASHIR)

Aadi has been an integral part of Bay Area theater for a decade. Trained at Carnegie Mellon University, he has essayed the roles of Richard in James Goldman's Lion in Winter, Samuel in Nilo Cruz's Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams, Alvaro in Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo, Naveen in Madhuri Shekhar's A Nice Indian Boy, Veerji in The Parting, Pehalwaan in Asghar Wajahat's Jis Lahore, DA Stevens in Ayn Rand's Night of January 16th, Asaf Khan in Feisal Alkazi's Noor, among others. His most recent direction was of Shane Sakhrani's A Widow Of No Importance. You can follow him @athakur or www.facebook.com/Aditya.Ady.Thakur

Basab Pradhan (IMAM SALEEM)

Basab Pradhan is a stage actor, director and playwright. His notable work as an actor includes Chairman Rao in Not Equal To, Moolchand in Rahul Varma's Counter Offence, Salman in Wajahat Ali's The Domestic Crusaders, Jairaj in Mahesh Dattani's Dance Like a Man and the molestor 'Uncle' in Dattani's 30 Days in September. His original full-length plays Not Equal To and Greater Than were staged in 2017 and 2018. 

Basab is Founder & Co-Artistic Director of Bay Area Drama Company. 

Nilanjan Mukherjee (DAR)

Nilanjan is excited about his first outing as an actor with Bay Area Drama Company. He was previously part of the stage crew for BAD Company’s Greater Than. In college, he founded 'Hoonkar', a street theatre group focused on raising awareness of socio-political issues. Apart from theatre, Nilanjan is an impressionist, a mimic, as well as a musician and the lead vocalist in 'Kolorob', a Bay Area based music band.

Director

Sindu Singh

Sindu Singh’s directorial credits include Vijay Tendulkar's Kanyadaan, Rahul Varma's Counter Offence, Girish Karnad's Wedding Album and Mahesh Dattani's Dance Like a Man. As an actor, she has essayed multiple roles with various Bay Area theatre companies. Favorites include Roma in Basab Pradhan's Greater Than, Subhadra and Aruna in Mahesh Elkunchwar’s Sonata, Malini in Anupama Chandrasekhar’s Free Outgoing, Naina in Basab Pradhan's adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House, Damyanti in Mahesh Elkunchwar's Party, Bagheera in Harish Agastya's Mowgli and I, Sarita in Vijay Tendulkar's Kamla, Hamida Begum in Asghar Wajahat's Jis Lahore Nahin Vekhya O Jammyai Nahin, Bhagwati in Divided Together, an adaptation of Girish Karnad's Hayavadana for the Stanford University Graduate Winter Repertory, the dual roles of Kaikeyi and Trijata in Dr. Parameswaran's Sitayascaritam Mahat for the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the dual roles of Indal and Mahil in Indal Haran, performed by invitation for the South Asia Institute, UT Austin. In 2013, she founded 'Rangmanch', a South Asian theater group for the Stanford University community, and for its maiden outing, directed Yoni ki Baat, the South Asian version of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues.

Sindu is Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Bay Area Drama Company.

PC: Ashima Yadava