About the Book:
The Bombay Plays was a Finalist for the 2007 Governor General's Award for Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize)
The Bombay Plays is an anthology containing two full-length dramas by Anosh Irani. Two plays that explore Bombay in a way you've never experienced before. The Matka King reveals a
landscape of betrayal and redemption come to life in the red-light
district of Bombay, India. Set in present-day India, Bombay Black is a powerful story of vengeance, betrayal, and seduction.
The Matka King is a story that pits human nature against love and chance, a landscape of betrayal and redemption comes to life in the red-light district of Bombay, India. One very powerful eunuch, Top Rani, operates an illicit lottery through his brothel, and when a gambler who is deeply in debt makes an unexpected wager, the stakes become life and death. Can a fortune-teller and a ten-year-old girl beat Top Rani at his own game? (Cast: 2 women, 3 men)
What people say:
"Anosh Irani has crafted a story as black and seductive as a desert night." — The Globe and Mail
"Excellent characterization and humour bring [this] cruel drama to life." — The Vancouver Sun
"…raunchy yet elegant… an engaging exploration of the darker side of human nature." — The Westender
"Top Rani's desire to understand his sexuality is very powerful. And this is perhaps where east meets west in Irani's intriguing play." — Vancouver Courier
Bombay Black is a love story between a blind man and a dancer. Apsara, Bombay's most infamous dancer, lives with her iron-willed mother Padma in an apartment by the sea. Padma takes money from men so they may watch her daughter perform a mesmerizing dance. Apsara's extraordinary beauty and erotically charged dancing cast a powerful spell over her wealthy and famous clientele. One day, a mysterious blind man named Kamal visits for a private dance. His secret link to their past threatens to change each of their lives forever. At turns lyrical and brutal, the play charts the seduction of Apsara by Kamal, and Padma's violent enmity toward the blind man and the secrets he holds. (Cast: 2 women, 1 man)
Bombay Black won 4 Dora Mavor Moore Awards including Outstanding New Play.
What people say:
"Sensuous, lyrical, mysterious, sordid, grotesque, romantic and highly emblematic…." — The Globe and Mail
"Pungent and lyrical and sometimes witty. Line by line, Irani never hits a false note." — National Post
"Playwright Anosh Irani carefully navigates between convincing casual conversation and rich lyricism… a precarious balance between beautiful mythology and ugly realism, between hope and despair." — Eye Weekly
"Anosh Irani's sultry, spooky and surreal tale of thwarted love and bittersweet revenge… beautifully captures the optimism of love against all odds." — NOW Magazine
About the Playwright:
Anosh Irani is an Indian-Canadian novelist and playwright. He was born and raised in Mumbai, although he still calls the city "Bombay," partly out of habit. After working in advertising in India, he moved to Vancouver in 1998, at the age of 24, to study and become a writer. His first play, The Matka King, premiered to rave reviews at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver. His play Bombay Black went on to win four Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including Outstanding New Play. He is also the author of the acclaimed novels The Cripple and His Talismans (a surreal story of an amputee in search of his lost arm) and The Song of Kahunsha (an Indian take on Oliver Twist).