New play set to spark vaccine and colonisation discussion amongst Manchester school students
The world premiere of a play that tells the story behind the introduction of the smallpox vaccine to Southern India will tour Manchester schools this October
This autumn, the acclaimed Theatre of Debate will be bringing their latest production, the world premiere of A Picture of Health, to schools in Manchester.
Written by award-winning actress and writer Sudha Bhuchar, the play is set in Mysore, Southern India, in 1805. Here, the young Princess Devajammani, newly-wed bride of annointed ruler of the Indian Kingdom, Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, was recuited to publicise and promote the smallpox vaccine and her unwitting role was captured in a painting commissioned by the East India Company, with the aim of encouraging participation in the vaccination programme.
Irish painter Thomas Hickey’s portrait The Three Queens of Mysore has since been dubbed “one of the most important scientific paintings in the history of medicine in India”.
A Picture of Health is the story behind that painting - a tale of politics, power, and persuasion by the East India Company to introduce the world’s first ever vaccine, discovered by Edward Jenner, to India, their biggest colonial enterprise.
Designed for young adult audiences, the play explores the themes of vaccination, variolation, colonisation, decolonisation, vaccine hesitancy and the compelling role of the women in the Royal family in early 19th century, Southern India. It will visit St Thomas More RC College Manchester on Monday 14 October and Levenshulme High School Manchester on Tuesday 15 October. In true Theatre of Debate tradition, each performance is followed by a facilicated debate.
The cast comprises John McAndrew as Thomas Hickey/ Mark Wilks/ Harry, Rea Malhotra Mukhtyar as Rajamata Lakshmammani / Arjun’s mother, Nim Gill as Younger Queen Devajammani (YQ) / Devika and Adrian Paul Jeyasingham as Arjun/ Purnaiya. The director is Nigel Townsend, design is by Rachana Jadhav and original music is composed by Tate Hingorani-Short.
A Picture of Health was made possible by the generosity of actor Peter Stenson (1934 to 2020) who left a £150,000 bequest to enable the commissioning of the play and to fund a national tour aimed at young people.Sudha Bhuchar says:
‘I have been as fascinated by uncovering the story behind this painting, as by the painter Thomas Hickey, who petitioned to be appointed the ‘official Historical and Portrait painter to the East India company’. His ambition was to travel the country and capture ordinary people of all faiths as well as his official commissions. He wanted to ‘illustrate and adorn with laurels from the British annals, this page of Indian history’. His paintings that survive are the lucrative commissions and in weaving in ordinary, everyday lives into my play, I imagined what else he would have sketched and committed to art. I was also blown away by the story of how Jenner’s smallpox vaccine travelled around the globe and the role of children in ensuring a chain of supply. The weaving of science and art is challenging and the parallels to our contemporary world are stark as illustrated by the image of this painting going viral online in India in 2020. The young Queen Devajammani has been taken into people’s hearts. I hope the characters and situations I invented will animate her story and provoke much debate.’
Nigel Townsend says:
“A Picture of Health has its roots in this true story from the 19th century India which has the power to resonate with us today, touching on issues of colonialism, vaccine resistance, the role of women, class and status. It was vital to me, following Peter Stenson’s generous bequest to Theatre of Debate that we did everything possible to bring the play alive and to stimulate conversations around those subjects”