Mehrosh, a celebrated student activist has been invited to an isolated house in the middle of a forest to take part in a debate with a powerful political adversary from the ruling party. It's a chance to make her voice heard.

Fearful of the coming conflict, surrounded by eerie shadows and mysterious noises, and increasingly uncertain of what she is told, Mehrosh starts to feel a growing paranoia that the people around her are not what they seem...

Phantasmagoria explores the dangers of divisive politics and unbridled social media to show how fear can be manufactured and manipulated with chilling consequences.

(ayoungishperspective.co.uk)

"There's a central theme that sadly will be forever prescient - although seems particularly apt now - about the nature of politics and the culture wars and cult of personality that dominate them, and 'Phantasmagoria' is an uncomfortable peek behind that curtain. Despite being set in an unnamed country, it's easy to imagine it and place it geographically - and no huge mental leap to see any country descending into the same state."

Uncaging the Leopard - Phantasmagoria at the Belgrade Theatre (elementarywhatson.com)

"Deepika Arwind is not terribly hopeful about the world right now. That much is clear. But maybe it is only 'in first contouring the dismay she feels', 'we can start to think of what the path out of the darkness looks like.' Maybe the debate itself will look all together different to the preceding dialogue. That's for the audience to imagine with renewed hope."

Playwright Deepika Arwind on 'Phantasmagoria' at Southwark Playhouse (strandmagazine.co.uk)

Kali's PHANTASMAGORIA by Deepika Arwind Comes to Southwark Playhouse Borough (broadwayworld.com)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Deepika Arwind is an award-winning international playwright originally from Bangalore whose work has been presented across India, Europe and the USA. She has won or been nominated for several awards, including the Toto Award, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, and The Hindu Playwright Award.

She was recently a playwright-in-residence at Jagriti, part of The International Conference of Insecurity - a collective of performers from eight countries based in Zurich (2022), and playwright-in-residence for the Welt/Buehne season at the Residenztheater in Munich.

She will be a fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart for most of 2023.