Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Brothel #9
    Brothel #9
    Brothel #9
    Ebook108 pages46 minutes

    Brothel #9

    By Anusree Roy and Iris Turcott

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A deal has been struck between two men in India—twenty-one hundred rupees in exchange for a young village woman named Rekha. Sent to Calcutta without knowing why, Rekha finds herself in the confines of a brothel with Jamuna, a prostitute and madam, who is resigned to her trade. In these conditions, Rekha must shape her destiny and find inner liberty.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPlaywrights Canada Press
    Release dateMay 1, 2012
    ISBN9781770910430
    Brothel #9
    Author

    Anusree Roy

    Anusree Roy is a Governor General’s Literary Award–nominated writer and actor whose work has premiered internationally. Her plays include Trident Moon, Sultans of the Street, Brothel #9, Roshni, Letters to my Grandma, Little Pretty and The Exceptional, and Pyaasa. Her plays and performances have won her four Dora Mavor Moore Awards along with multiple nominations. She is the recipient of the KM Hunter Artist Award, the RBC Emerging Artist Award, and the Carol Bolt Award, was named as a protégé of the Siminovitch Prize, and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She lives in Toronto.

    Read more from Anusree Roy

    Related to Brothel #9

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      “Where Did You Laugh?”

      Dec 14, 2019

      “Where Did You Laugh?”
      4 min read

    • Article

      Bad Behavior

      Mar 1, 2018

      Bad Behavior
      6 min read

    • Article

      Polly Stenham

      Jun 4, 2016

      Polly Stenham
      1 min read

    • Article

      My 21st-century Touchstone Play: Theatre Stars Share The Shows That Shook Them To The Core

      Feb 19, 2021

      Here at the Evening Standard, we recently tried to pull together the 21st-century’s greatest plays (read our list and see if you agree). But what about those plays that impact us more personally, that seem to speak to us directly and leave us getting

      7 min read

    • Article

      Adapting the Bard: On the Hogarth Shakespeare Project’s Diversity Problem

      Oct 5, 2017

      It is disappointing when a project aims to see “the Bard’s plays retold by acclaimed, bestselling novelists and brought to life for a contemporary readership,” yet the writers selected are not ultimately representative of all that contemporary societ

      6 min read

    • Article

      Carrie Coon Has Drawn Acclaim for Her TV Work, but Her Return to Theater in 'Mary Jane' Brings a Welcome Clarity of Character

      Oct 27, 2017

      NEW YORK - You can tell by the way Carrie Coon confidently maneuvers around the tables of a crowded Tribeca restaurant that this is an actress who has hit her stride. She recently completed two tours of television duty, receiving acclaim for her work

      6 min read

    • Article

      Refugees

      Mar 1, 2019

      Refugees
      12 min read

    • Article

      Small Is Beautiful

      Sep 25, 2019

      Small Is Beautiful
      10 min read

    • Article

      Pain And Love In The Backyard

      Feb 25, 2020

      In Will Arbery’s new play, five conservative Catholics in Wyoming gather late at night by a fire pit to argue, commiserate, and face the uncertain future of their faith and their country. Danya Taymor, who directed the play’s premiere at New York Cit

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Female RAGE manifesto

      Mar 10, 2020

      The camera loves women. It loves watching us move, it loves watching us get dressed, get undressed, smile, cry, fall in love, get hurt, get drunk, have sex, be assaulted, be wronged, be distressed… But there’s one thing it does not like us to do: it

      4 min read

    • Article

      Our 25-year friendship

      May 6, 2021

      Our 25-year friendship
      3 min read

    • Article

      Love And A UKULELE

      Feb 22, 2023

      Love And A UKULELE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Down The Rabbit Hole

      Jul 11, 2022

      Down The Rabbit Hole
      6 min read

    • Article

      One Man Army

      Jun 28, 2019

      One Man Army
      7 min read

    • Article

      Charles Martinet

      Jul 8, 2021

      Charles Martinet
      11 min read

    • Article

      A Fresh Perspective

      Jun 22, 2022

      A Fresh Perspective
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Brothel #9

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Brothel #9 - Anusree Roy

      Act I

      SCENE 1.

      A kal Baisakhi storm is brewing. Thunder.

      Fish curry is cooking on an Indian-style stove. JAMUNA rushes in to attend her food as a client exits her room.

      JAMUNA: Aare aare aare re dhore galo re.[1] It is totally gone burnt. My fish curry is totally going burnt.

      She picks up a tomato, smells it and cuts it with the boti, a sharp foot-operated cutting blade with a base, primarily used for cutting vegetables and fish. She adds the tomato to the curry, occasionally stirring.

      Ummm… Rui-Macher jhol. Patla patla.[2]

      She smells the fish curry. REKHA enters as she waves goodbye to her brother-in-law, who is offstage.

      REKHA: (to brother-in-law) Ta-ta.[3] Chinta korona.[4] (to JAMUNA) Umm. Didi.[5] Ashte pari?[6]

      JAMUNA: If you are looking for your husband, he is not here. I am cooking not servicing now. I will eat fish now, fish.

      REKHA: Na, didi. Aami je eshachie.[7]

      JAMUNA: Ke escho? Dkte parchina to chehara ta.[8] Who? (pause) Are you deaf?

      REKHA: My name Rekha.

      JAMUNA: Who is Rekha?

      REKHA: Me. (pause) My name Rekha.

      JAMUNA: So, what I will do? Dance with it on my head?

      REKHA: Na, didi. I am thinking, can I come in?

      JAMUNA: And do what?

      REKHA: Just come in and wait.

      JAMUNA: Eta waiting korar jaiga na.[9] Don’t think this is park! Come and go, come and go. People come and go. Nobody is here to stay. Nobody is here to wait. Understanding? Ugh! Ki chai taki?[10]

      REKHA: Oie je.[11] I am here to see the bulb-factory owner.

      JAMUNA: What?

      REKHA: Here is factory, no?

      My brother-in-law told me to come here and meet factory owner with the moustache.

      JAMUNA: Who said that?

      REKHA: My brother-in-law.

      JAMUNA: Your brother-in-law comes here?

      REKHA: No no no. Don’t say that. Why he would work in a bulb factory, he be working for government job, making plastic bag. (beat) There is no job in Chandannagar,[12] where we are from. So he said a bulb factory here in Kolkata would be better for me. (awkward pause) Oh, my brother-in-law says the man with the moustache smokes biri.[13]

      JAMUNA: Birbal!

      REKHA: You know him?

      JAMUNA: He be my husband.

      REKHA: Really?

      JAMUNA: No.

      REKHA: Oh. Um…

      JAMUNA: He is not here.

      REKHA: Ha. Um. Oie. You see, my brother-in-law just dropped me off here. He told me that I be working from tomorrow so I be having to come here tonight only. Told me to find the Birbal man, I am work in his factory. Said that I would be very good in the making of bulbs. See, I have thin fingers he said.

      She shows her fingers. Pause.

      JAMUNA: (big realization followed by laughter) Ohhh!!! What you say your name? Rakhi?

      REKHA: Rekha. Oie, you know the film star, Rekha? Like her.

      JAMUNA: Film star Rekha! Tumi Shai![14] Number three.

      REKHA: Mane?[15]

      JAMUNA: Number three. Number three.

      REKHA: What is number three?

      JAMUNA: Room. Yours. (pause) So, it is for you film star Rekha, that I have been having to give my almost new bed mattress for. Gave you my old pillow. One. Don’t think I be giving you new pillow. You bring your own cover. Inside there be a picture of Lord Shiva. Don’t take it down. It was Neeta’s room before. She ran off with that Ghotok. I give them two weeks, then she will be back beaten as before. Oh, hide your money in your bra, that is bank. Or else money will fly.

      REKHA: Oh.

      JAMUNA: Don’t do Oh oh. Go to number three.

      REKHA: What will I do?

      JAMUNA: What?

      REKHA: What will I do in my room?

      JAMUNA: (sarcastic) Dance? You dance and I will sit here and eat my burnt fish.

      REKHA: I can. Na, a little bit of singing.

      JAMUNA: Oh, that’s even more lovely. We have a new film star Rekha, who can sing.

      Pause.

      REKHA: Is there a bathroom here?

      JAMUNA: There. Tin door. Cover it when you go in and cover it when you come out. Look, there is water pipe. It is corporation pipe. Ten o’clock, three o’clock and eight o’clock, water comes from that line. If you use the water, you will fill it up again.

      REKHA: Aacha.[16]

      JAMUNA: Take off your slippers before you step into your room, or the bathroom, or near the Tulsi plant. Every morning, sweep number three. If room be not clean, no money in the bank. (She gestures towards her bra.) Also, outside, walk left there is coloured-water store.

      REKHA: What store?

      JAMUNA: Coloured water. Liquor,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1