Elyria, a New Play Featuring Bard Faculty Member Bhavesh Patel, Is Reviewed in the New York Times

Bhavesh Patel, Visiting Artist in Residence in Theater and Performance at Bard College, stars in Elyria, a new play by Deepa Purohit which was reviewed by the New York Times. Set in 1982 Ohio, it is a story of the Indian diaspora and centers around the tangled relationships between two women, Dhatta and Vasanta, and Charu, a doctor played by Patel who is husband to Dhatta and former lover of Vasanta. “Watching an actor steal a show is one of the absolute thrills of live performance,” writes Laura Collins-Hughes for the Times about Patel. Exploring motifs of family history, marriages, and parent-child relationships, the play crisscrosses continents from Africa to Europe and North America and weaves a complex tale from many converging narrative threads. “Patel’s Charu is perfect,” Collins-Hughes continues. “Charu is comic and reckless, selfish and decent, myopic and real. It’s an exhilarating performance, a work of actorly alchemy.”

Post Date: 03-07-2023