YOGA PLAY

Reginald Theatre, October 19

7/10

Don’t judge the play by its title, because what curious fare this is: like having a bagel or fries with your authentic Indian curry. The spicy part is the satire, and the carbs are the feel-good factor. In fact Indian-American playwright Dipika Guha may even have invented a new genre with Yoga Play: kind satire. In a program note, she says that she wrote it because she needed to laugh, and it mostly works for us, too, as she skewers the southern California yoga industry.

Camila Ponte Alvarez. Top: Jemwel Danao, Andrea Moor and Nat Jobe. Photos: Phil Erbacher.

Joan (Andrea Moor) has been hired as CEO of yoga-wear company Jojomon, whose founder John (Thomas Larkin) is much too busy spending his millions on tuning out to run a business. Joan walks straight into a firestorm: the nosey BBC has exposed that the company’s Bangladeshi factory is largely staffed by underpaid, overworked children.

Her colleagues Raj (Nat Jobe) and Fred (Jemwel Danao) are impressed that Joan’s solution is not to address the ethics, but to band-aid the festering public relations. She needs an Indian guru to champion Jojomon’s authenticity, and her first hope is LA’s premiere wellness institute, where Romola (Camila Ponte Alvarez) offers everything from prenatal yoga to weight-training yoga for $400 an hour. Alas, no guru.

When she finally hauls in the revered Guruji from the Himalayan foothills, he turns out to be Alan (also Larkin), an ex-pat American. He might be suitably zoned-out on meditation, but he’s the wrong look, and Raj, who knows nothing of his own Hindi culture, must suddenly become a yogi laid bare before the millions.

Andrea Moor and Jemwel Danao. Photos: Phil Erbacher.

Guha satirises racism, racial stereotyping and southern California’s health and image obsessions with keen observation and deft wit. Mina Morita’s production (for National Theatre of Parramatta and La Boite Theatre) is dazzlingly designed by James Lew, catching assorted business and new age tropes, aided by Mark Bolotin’s multimedia work. Morita’s cast generally excels at sharpening the satirical shears, although just occasionally they settle for the lowest-hanging laughs, and become overly cartoonish. Standing out is Larkin’s ex-pat guru. He mostly just has to adopt a lotus position, close his eyes and ignore everyone, and yet somehow he seems to spread a certain calmness and peace (just like a real guru!), so you leave the theatre pleasantly relaxed – as well as having had a giggle.

https://riversideparramatta.com.au/whats-on/yoga-play/