Rahul Varma's visit with BAD Company

Rahul Varma, the brilliant playwright who penned Counter Offence, flew in all the way from Montreal to attend opening night and led a thought-provoking Talkback afterwards. The next day he stopped by our rehearsal studio and spent the morning with the cast and crew. What started out as a brief meet and greet led to a rich 4 hour exchange of ideas and scintillating conversations around Counter Offence, Teesri Duniya (his theatre company in Montreal), writing, theatre, multiculturalism and social justice and much much more. It was an absolute privilege to have an enlightened playwright like Rahul who is working on the cutting edge of social justice and theatre in our midst. To many more such mornings!

Here's Rahul's reaction after watching our production:

The last production of Counter Offence I saw was about a decade and a half ago, and I couldn’t be happier with Bay Area Drama Company’s revival of the play under the directorship of Sindu Singh, who brought a nuanced vision to life. This is the first-time that Counter Offence has been directed by a woman of South Asian descent – I am truly honored.

Under Sindu’s superb direction, the play highlighted the violence against women that is pervasive across cultures, social classes, religions and races and forced the audience to question whether it should be tolerated. Sindu made the play a celebration of culture as well as a social critique of the pressing issues facing us – I couldn’t have asked for more.  

Supported by an effective set and sound effects, the cast of actors portrayed their characters with unmatched passion. The light designer ensured the play move flawlessly between the present and the past through flashbacks and the difficult and crucial ‘flashback-within-a-flashback’ element in the script. Thank you, cast, crew and the design team.

The story of Counter Offence pits two virtuous struggles against each other – the struggle to end violence against women and the struggle to end racism against minorities. I thank Bay Area Drama Company for giving me an opportunity to work with them and look forward to future collaborations.