San Jose Repertory Theatre — a non-profit, professional theatre company in the South Bay — has announced the final addition to its seven-play line-up for the 2012-2013 season — the West Coast premiere of the comedy Disconnect by Anupama Chandrasekhar, March 21 to April 14, 2013.
The play, directed by San Jose Rep Artistic Director Rick Lombardo, is set in a contemporary call center in Chennai, India. True to its title, Disconnect explores the connections and disconnections among economies and people on opposite sides of the world. The play follows the bright young college graduates in a call center working to claw back cash spent by Americans crippled by debt, half a world away.
Chandrasekhar, who is based in Chennai (formerly known as Madras) is an alumna of the Royal Court Theatre’s International Playwrights Program in London that is sponsored by the Genesis Foundation. Her extremely successful first play was Free Outgoing in 2007, also supported by the Genesis Foundation.
The world premiere of Disconnect was at the Royal Court Theatre in February, 2012.
Chandrasekhar deftly captures the challenges of the workers, who assume American identities, including names and accents. Like David Mamet in Glengarry Glen Ross, Chandrasekhar captures the banter and the feuds of a high-pressure workplace, where targets are everything and the milk of human kindness is in short supply.
San Jose Rep’s 2012-2013 season features seven productions and kicks off August 2012.