After the highly acclaimed world premiere of Sonali Bhattacharya’s ‘Two Billion Beats’ last year, the play is set to return at the Orange Tree Theatre London this January.
Orange Tree Theatre has announced the full cast of the play, which will open on 24 January with previews from 20 January and run until 4 February 2023. Nimmo Ismail and Tian Brown- Sampson will direct this witty and upbeat play written by the award-winning playwright and screenwriter Sonali Bhattacharya.
The coming-of-age story revolves around two sisters, Asha (Shala Nyx) and Bettina (Tanvi Virmani), and how they cope with the unfairness of growing up, the imbalance and hypocrisy of this world, their sisterly bond, and finally finding their rhythm.
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Seventeen-year-old Asha is an empathetic rebel inspired by historical revolutionaries and iconoclasts Sylvia Pankhurst and B R Ambedkar. She’s unafraid of pointing out the hypocrisy around her but less sure how to actually dismantle it.
Meanwhile, her younger sister, Bettina, wide-eyed and naïve, is just trying to get through the school day without getting her pocket money nicked. When Bettina turns to her for help, Asha starts to ask what standing up for her political beliefs really looks like.
Bhattacharya’s productions include Megaball (National Theatre Learning), Slummers (Cardboard Citizens/Bunker Theatre), 2066 (Almeida Theatre), The Invisible Boy (Kiln Theatre) and White Open Spaces (Pentabus Theatre). She was a 2018 Channel 4 writer in residence at the OT, where she wrote Chasing Hares, winning the Sonia Friedman Production Award and Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award, produced at the Young Vic in 2022.
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Shala Nyx, an actor, producer and also activist in real life, will be something to look forward to portraying the role of Asha. Her recent film and TV credits include Gita in the Netflix premiere The Old Guard, Munira in Home, and Alanagh in BBC One’s EastEnders. Recent theatre credits include Sam in The Gravity at Bristol Old Vic, Rayah in Cookies at Theatre Royal Haymarket, and Aziza in A Thousand Splendid Suns at Birmingham Rep.
Tanvi Virmani plays Bettina. Her theatre credits include The Tempest (Bath Theatre Royal), and Life of Pi (Wyndham’s Theatre).
*Info: Orange Tree Theatre
