Two Stars for Two Billion Beats by Sonali Battacharyya
Orange Tree Theatre | Seen January 25, 2023
Two Billion Beats starts by explaining the importance of a good hook; unfortunately, it didn’t leave me inspired enough to write one!
This is Sonali Battacharyya’s second play in its second production at the Orange Tree Theatre, under the direction of Ninmo Ismail and Tian Brown-Sampson. The play first premiered at the Orange Tree in 2022 with a different cast.
Battacharayya’s play tells the story of seventeen-year-old Asha, an exemplary student and budding activist, and her younger sister, Bettina. Through her studies in and beyond the classroom, Asha becomes inspired by historic revolutionaries Sylvia Pankhurst and B.R. Ambedkar, and begins having to think like them when she finds her agency and voice being stifled. This becomes even more pressing when she realizes the extent to which her sister is being bullied and is struggling to make it through the school day. The sisters navigate these struggles together and learn hard lessons about truth, prejudice, and the value of their own voices.
This is a timely and relevant coming of age story about a young activist. We get to see Asha explore the sensitive and important gap that not many ever fully bridge- the transition from mere intellectual radicalism to true, frontline activism. It also looks at the intricacies of prejudices against Pakistani people and Muslims in contemporary England, and even further, treatments of gender within these groups, as well. It’s certainly an important story and a unique perspective, but as a piece of drama, it didn’t have me gripped.
Like a Greek tragedy, all of the action takes place off stage. We are only privy to the conversations that happen after the major events between the two sisters. The plot is interesting, but I wish we could either see it in real time with the full cast of characters, or that this was a solo piece told only from Asha’s perspective in the style of her long monologues delivered to the audience. I’m not sure I understand why every conversation between the sisters was absolutely necessary, and I definitely was not always engaged with them.
To its credit, this particular production felt balanced and intimate; Shala Nyx as Asha and Tanvi Virmani as Bettina brought lively energy to their roles, and both of them can command the space vocally and physically. I’m not sure what liberties the directors had with use of the room, but a two-hander in the round can easily get stuck with repetitive and restricted stage pictures, and this production unfortunately did. The movement didn’t always feel arbitrary and they luckily weren’t seated in just one position for 90 minutes, but the staging didn’t pull me in any closer. There were some directorial choices I found compelling, like the moment Nyx dabbed on her own makeup to form a bruised eye as if attempting to cover it up. Many aspects of the design, particularly the light and sound shifts to bring us into Asha’s mind during her monologues were effective.
Two Billion Beats at the Orange Tree Theatre is worth seeing if you’re a theatergoer in the area, but unfortunately, I wouldn’t say it’s unmissable. Like its protagonist, the play has a lot of important things to say, but I’m not sure it's found the strongest way of doing so.