The assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards sparked sectarian rioting in India. Over the subsequent 24 years, the once secular state has experienced repeated religious violence. Prasad Vanarase's production, performed in five languages (with subtitles) by an engaging young company from the Indian subcontinent, offers a snapshot of the tragedies of those caught up in the bloodshed. A woman searching for her son in the hospital morgue tells the attendant that he was wearing a red T-shirt. "Madame, everything here is red," he replies.
These appalling stories have tremendous power. However, Vanarase's production simply offers one terrible incident after another. In failing to supply context, it is in danger of coming across like a staged misery memoir. There is one satirical scene in which a government minister cynically asks for three speeches to cover all eventualities in a riot situation, which makes the point that politicians have no will to stop the violence; they can merely exploit it. The cynicism is compounded when it turns out the speech-writer is also writing for the opposition. But the production never explores political responsibility, or the role of the police and army; instead it becomes a dully staged series of eyewitness reports of slaughter.
At least I suppose they are eye-witness reports. The piece never makes clear its methodology, so it is impossible to tell what is based on interviews, what is lifted from newspaper accounts and what is made up. If the politician is made up, then maybe the woman in the morgue is, too? Fiction can sometimes speak louder than facts, but the audience are entitled to know which is which.
· Ends tomorrow. Box office: 0844 412 4317.
