Vikram Gandhi, Sarita Choudhury, Deepa Mehta to Host NIRBHAYA Discussion

This spring, the electrifying new docudrama Nirbhaya will make its North American premiere at CULTURE PROJECT'S Lynn Redgrave Theater. Written and directed by internationally acclaimed Yaël Farber (Mies Julie), and in collaboration with an extraordinary cast and creative team from India, Nirbhaya had its world premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2013, where it won the coveted Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, as well as the Scotsman Fringe First and the Herald Angel Award for Outstanding New Play.

Nirbhaya explores the now-infamous night that shocked India and the world, when 23 year-old Jyoti Singh Pandey was fatally gang raped on a bus in urban Delhi on her way home. Legally prevented from revealing the young woman's real name, the media named her "Nirbhaya" (Fearless One). Through its use of intimate, personal testimonies from the cast-all of whom are survivors of sexual violence themselves-Nirbhaya transcends traditional theatrical norms. The cast, inspired by a nation who rose up against the forces behind Jyoti's tragedy, chooses to break their own personal silences about sexual violence and seeks to empower their audiences to do the same.

Hailed as one of the most urgent and compelling pieces of human rights theater ever made, Nirbhaya will play a limited 5-week run in New York this spring, with preview performances beginning Thursday, April 16 and opening night set for Sunday, April 26.

At select performances, Vikram Gandhi (Director, Kumare), Sarita Choudhury (Homeland, Mississippi Masala), Deepa Mehta (Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Water), Abigail Disney (executive producer of The Invisible War, Queen of Versailles),Naomi Wolf (Author of the bestselling book The Beauty Myth), Liesl Gerntholtz(executive director of the human rights division of Human Rights Watch), and Elizabeth Plank (senior editor of Mic) will each host intimate and in-depth discussions after the show to engage in a dialogue about ending violence against women.