Description: A satire about the trade in body organs which exploits the poor in India for the benefit of rich Westerners.
Brief description: Manjula Padmanabhan is a writer and artist who has illustrated many books for children. 'Harvest' has been published in Greece, the UK and the USA and won the Onassis Playwriting Prize. It has been adopted by many University courses to help students understand the effects of globalization on those living in poverty.
Review Quotes:
"... a fascinating, funny, and frightening glimpse of what happens when we commodify human beings. Although it addresses globalization, the play's issues are universal." Backstage
"... When young, unemployed Om lands a coveted job at the mammoth Inter-Planta corporation, his slum life (and that of his Indian family) is transformed overnight. In a Faustian exchange for luxuries like a private bath in his own home, Om has signed away his body parts. In Padmanabhan's witty and fast-paced satirical drama, the new world order is comprised of Receivers and Donors. In the colonialism of the future, the dominant group will pay handsomely for the right to harvest the healthy organs of wealthy westerners." American Theatre Magazine
"... a dark fantasy about a high-tech racket in body organs, it posits a not-too-distant future in which a Big Brother-like multinational company, InterPlanta, headhunts for organ donors in third-world countries... the InterPlanta lackeys eventually arrive to take the donor for harvest - and aren't too discriminating about which body they ultimately take." The New York Times
"Savage, swiftian and with humour so black that what little laughter it provokes is painful, Manjula Padmanabhan's award-winning play is really an allegory about relationships." India Today
"Harvest compels from beginning to end, creating a not-so-fanciful futuristic world that's pretty darned scary." New York Theater