A play exploring the global and personal implications of India’s surrogacy industry, Made in India is to have its world premiere at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre.
Made in India is set in a surrogacy clinic in Gujarat where three women meet. Eva from London has a last chance of motherhood. Surrogacy is a lifeline out of poverty for village girl, dairy worker and single mother Aditi—a chance to give her own daughters a better chance in life. For clinic owner and businesswoman Dr Gupta, it is just another transaction.
Playwright Satinder Chohan said, “I felt compelled to write a play with surrogacy at its heart as it is such a controversial subject loaded with conflicting emotions, culture and politics.
“I felt connected to the subject as, with my Indian village roots, the Indian women acting as surrogates that I had read about in news stories could be any number of my female relatives or indeed myself if my parents had taken a different path in life.”
Satinder Chohan began working with theatre company Tamasha through its developing artists new writing programme and has worked alongside artistic director Fin Kennedy to develop early drafts of Made in India.
She has teamed up with director Katie Posner and trainee assistant director Corey Campbell to stage this first production.
The all-female cast is led by Gina Isaac in the role of Eva. She played Christopher’s mother in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time at the National Theatre and on tour. Ulrika Krishnamurti is Aditi and Syreeta Kumar plays Dr Gupta.
Made in India runs in the B2 auditorium at the Belgrade from Tuesday 24 January until Saturday 4 February.