[Review] “Yoga Play”: A Masterpiece By Dipika Guha With A Deeper Meaning (5/5 Stars)

Chapel Hill, NC – Last Saturday (Feb. 26) was a beautiful night for PlayMakers Repertory Company’s regional premiere of Yoga Play written by Dipika Guha and directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh. Guha brought satiric wit to the Chapel Hill stage in a comedy that asks if we can find authenticity in a world determined to commodify just about anything.

To the public, Yoga Play was an opportunity to see what they anticipated was going to be a massive hit. Many individuals crammed in the theater to attain front-row seats, sitting in awe as they waited to see the play written by Dipika Guha, the woman who has inspired and cultivated a fan base from her playwriting and television shows like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. One of her fans, and Producing Artistic Director of PlayMakers, Vivienne Benesch, commented, “Yoga Play is my favorite kind of comedy. It delights while it provokes a bit of introspection – and a lot of conversation – on your way out of the theater.”

The Debut of Talented Artists

Yoga Play marks the PlayMakers debut of five talented artists: Naren Weiss, who performed in Letters of Suresh at Second Stage Off-Broadway. The return of Mia Piner, who performed in My Fair Lady and West Side Story on Broadway. The play also featured Sergio Mauritz Ang, who performed in The Skin of Our Teeth and Julius Caesar. Jeffrey Blair Cornell, who, like Sergio, performed in The Skin of Our Teeth and Julius Caesar. Finally, Julia Gibson, who performed in The Cake and Ragtime.

Yoga Play, while premiering on February 23, will continue to be on stage until March 13th. On March 1st at 7:30 pm, the play will give an all-access performance for attendees with special needs, providing individuals with access to sign language interpretation and audio description. Moreover, on March 6th, at 2:00 pm, the theater will hold an open-captioned performance, including dialogue, stage direction, and sound effects with universal access to live captions. More importantly, due to COVID-19, socially distanced performances will be provided on March 8th, 9th, and 10th at 7:30 pm.

About the Play

Having the opportunity to mingle with the audience before the play began, I spoke to a man and his wife about what he was most excited to see during the performance. Although he knew nothing about Dipika Guha or her written works, he was happy to be in the theater. More importantly, he was ecstatic to be attending a play at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He comments, “with COVID, it is good to be able to get out. I and my wife love theater, and we love to be able to attend as many plays in the season as we can. I usually like the plays the university performs. My wife and I have season passes. Most of these people in the audience are probably subscribers to the plays they perform.”

Yoga Play follows Joan, a woman who has been hired as the CEO to stabilize Jojoman, a yoga apparel company whose previous CEO was under a fat-shaming scandal. Just as she has become successful in the company, she soon faces enormous challenges – sales are plummeting, and her reputation within the company is on the line. Coming up with a risky idea that could perhaps make or break the company, she sets out in pursuit to sell more than just yoga pants. To save the company, Joan undergoes a quest in search of happiness.

The Playwright

Dipika Guha was born in Calcutta and raised in Russia and then the UK. She is known for her variety of plays, including The Art of Gaman and Unreliable. On the other hand, for television, she is known for writing American Gods, Sneaky Pete, projects at AMC and Netflix’s Black Monday. Currently, she is writing The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon. She developed her play on her commission from South Coast Repertory Theater in Orange County, California. Guha states, “I actually had a few ideas I was mulling over – one was to do with immigration and the existence of ‘servant visas’ in the US. More importantly, I wanted the chance to laugh…and for others to be able to laugh.” Moreover, she states, “the second idea of mine was to convey Californian history and yoga.”

Yoga’s mission was written for one main purpose: to explore the pursuits of wealth and spirituality. But for some others, the play was much more. An actor and student as well as an immigrant, Sergio Mauritz Ang, who played the role of Fred, conveyed his ideas about what he thought Dipika Guha was trying to portray; although he had no previous knowledge of Dipika or The Yoga, he fell in love with the deeper meaning of the story. He states, “as being an immigrant myself, the deeper meaning of this play to me was about peace…it is about knowing when to take a break from life, and how to find peace when things get too hard.”

Review

In essence, the play is much more than just a comedy, and it is a masterpiece created for every individual to dig a little deeper in knowing who they are as a person. Not only did  “The Yoga” advocate for plus-size women, but it also joined the fight in being against constricted gender norms. The creators who brought this play to life were genius; the lighting, the music, the individuality, and the portrayal of each character were exhilarating. Yoga Play will bring you into a fictional reality of comedy and brilliance you won’t want to miss. I give Yoga Play a resounding 5 out of 5 stars. 

More Information

Individual ticket prices will start at 20 dollars. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.playmakersrep.org, or call 919.962.7529.