Play: The Lady of Burma
Author: Richard Shannon
Actor: Rukmini Vijayakumar
Sound Design: Pallavi Arun
Lighting: Arun Murthy
Director: Prakash Belawadi
Troupe: Radha Kalpa & Centre for Film and Drama

Performances are at 7.30 PM, on October 6 & 7, 2009, at RANGASHANKARA.
Tickets are priced at Rs 150. For reservations please call ANIL
RAMACHANDRA - 98456 02265

Richard Shannon’s THE LADY OF BURMA is a play set in the aftermath of the
Depayin attack in Burma in 2003, an assassination attempt aimed to remove
one of the greatest surviving champions of democracy in the world - Aung San
Suu Kyi. As Desmond Tutu says of her: “She is my pin-up! She inspires me
with her gentle determination. Men, armed to the teeth, are running scared
of her. She has already won and they know they have lost.”

The Burmese leader survived the attack in which 100 of her followers were
beaten to death, apparently with the full support of one of the most brutal
military dictatorships in the world. Burma is ruled by fear with over 1,000
political prisoners, child soldiers, slave labour and suppression of
minorities with intimidation, rape and ethnic cleansing.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been put under house arrest in Rangoon since 1989, when
her party NLD won a landslide victory, against all odds, in the elections.
Now in her 20th year of detention, she lives in solitary confinement. She is
not allowed to see family or friends. Her phone line is cut and her post is
intercepted.

The play itself is designed as a one-actor performance and set in the
hospital wing of Insein, Rangoon’s largest prison and is a journey into her
memories.

Rukmini Vijayakumar, in the solo designed for speech and stylised movement,
is trained in Bharatanatyam from the age of eight, in Western Classical
Ballet and in Ballet and Modern dance at The Boston Conservatory, one of the
top performing arts schools in the USA. She also has trained in Alexander
technique, laban movement analysis, choreography, jazz, tap, African dance
and several other movement forms. Rukmini also studied acting at the New
York Film Academy. She has recently starred in lead roles in two Tamil
films, gaining acclaim for the delineated characters.

Centre for Film and Drama is always eager to bring to performance
interesting and engaging texts from around the world that resonate with
context and concerns of our age. Sound design for the play is by Pallavi
Aru. Design and direction, by Prakash Belawadi. The play is presented by
performance group Radha Kalpa.