When Satinder Chohan commenced work on a drama set in a Gujarat assisted reproductive technology clinic, India was still considered to be the surrogacy tourism capital of the world. Since then, a government bill has outlawed the practice for non-residents; Nepal, Cambodia and Thailand have followed suit.
From the outset, Chohan’s 90-minute drama establishes the sense of a rather breathless race against time. Childless advertising executive Eva arrives at the clinic in a state of high anxiety, bearing a vial of her dead husband’s sperm and a newspaper report that suggests she may have almost bankrupted herself raising the necessary funds for nothing. The chief surgeon, Dr Gupta, blithely assures her that the regulations are unlikely to change close to a general election: “Too much to lose.” But she puts up stiff resistance to Eva’s request that she meet her surrogate in person.
A similar plot was explored by Meera Syal in her novel The House of Hidden Mothers, in which a self-determined Englishwoman breaches protocol by forming an emotional attachment with the woman carrying her child. Katie Posner’s production for Tamasha, Pilot Theatre and the Belgrade draws intense performances from Gina Isaac as the desperate Eva, Syreeta Kumar as the inscrutable doctor and Ulrika Krishnamurti as a village girl whose life stands to be transformed by the transaction.
Though it’s never less than compelling, there’s a sense that Chohan’s drama is chasing rather than determining events – and such a contentious issue feels like greater weight than this slender vessel can bear.
• At Belgrade theatre, Coventry, until 4 February. Box office: 024-7655 3055. Then touring until 8 April.
