Harvest - Softcover

In Manjula Padmanabhan's play 'Harvest', bits of impoverished Indians go to America through voluntary organ donation sponsored by the company InterPlanta. InterPlanta's mordant commercials (the video director is Matt Bockelman) punctuate the scenes and are one of the best elements in a solid show; the happy actors' sincerity, and InterPlanta's little jingle. We make life worth living are uncomfortably close to the euphoric promises of Viagra commercials. Jaya, the wife of organ donor Om (Debargo Sanyal), is the play's moral center, although the action is driven by Om and by Jaya's brother-in-law and lover, Jeetu (Rupak Ginn), a street hustler who says, 'I don't mind being bought, but I won't be owned.' After Om signs with InterPlanta, guards (who farcically finish each other's sentences) come to the house and take all the family's possessions. They install a hanging white rosette called a 'contact module' through which their sponsor, a blond Southern woman named Ginni (hilariously bossy Christianna Nelson), beams her image. She treats them like prospective livestock... --Backstage

'...good fortune comes at a terrible cost in the futuristic world of Manjula Padmanabhan's Harvest. When young, unemployed Om lands a coveted job at the mammoth Inter-Planta corporation, his slum life (and that of his Indian family) is transformed overnight. In a Faustian exchange for luxuries like a private bath in his own home, Om has signed away his body parts. In Padmanabhan's witty and fast-paced satirical drama, which East Coast Artists will perform at La MaMa E.T.C. in New York City starting Jan. 19, the new world order is comprised of Receivers and Donors. In the colonialism of the future, the dominant group will pay handsomely for the right to harvest the healthy organs of wealthy westerners.' --American Theatre Magazine

Manjula Padmanabhan's sci-fi parable 'Harvest' is a dark fantasy about a high-tech racket in body organs. (At least the high-tech part is fantasy.) A cross between the 2002 thriller 'Dirty Pretty Things' and an episode of 'The Twilight Zone,' it posits a not-too-distant future in which a Big Brother-like multinational company, InterPlanta, headhunts for organ donors in third-world countries. In return for modest modern conveniences, from running water to video equipment, InterPlanta's donors sign away their body parts to rich Westerners, with whom their only communication is a 'contact module' (actually a snazzy light fixture) that projects a nagging video image of the recipient - as well as slick corporate advertorials touting the sardonic mantra 'We Make Lives Worth Living.' 'Harvest' focuses on a small family in India: Om (Debargo Sanyal); his wife, Jaya (Diksha Basu), reported to InterPlanta as his sister, since the company does not use married donors; his mother, Ma (Naheed Khan); and his brother, Jeetu (Rupak Ginn), a prostitute who is also Jaya's lover. Om is initially enchanted with the benefits of his nefarious bargain and in total denial about its consequences, and his mother is only too happy to enjoy the new gadgets that soon arrive, delivered by three perky, robotlike InterPlanta employees (Zina Anaplioti, Sam Chase and Jeffrey Withers). Soon the family is dining on space-age food pellets doled out from the stainless-steel trolley that has replaced their old stove, and their shabby flat has been transformed into something more contemporary. In return, they have to submit to daily interrogations via the contact module by Ginni (Christianna Nelson), the predictably blond-haired, blue-eyed American woman who now essentially owns the rights to Om's body. They also need to be prepared for the unannounced visits of the InterPlanta lackeys, who eventually arrive to take the donor for harvest - and aren't too discriminating about which body they ultimately take. --The New York Times

'...good fortune comes at a terrible cost in the futuristic world of Manjula Padmanabhan's Harvest. When young, unemployed Om lands a coveted job at the mammoth Inter-Planta corporation, his slum life (and that of his Indian family) is transformed overnight. In a Faustian exchange for luxuries like a private bath in his own home, Om has signed away his body parts. In Padmanabhan's witty and fast-paced satirical drama, which East Coast Artists will perform at La MaMa E.T.C. in New York City starting Jan. 19, the new world order is comprised of Receivers and Donors. In the colonialism of the future, the dominant group will pay handsomely for the right to harvest the healthy organs of wealthy westerners.' --American Theatre Magazine

Manjula Padmanabhan's sci-fi parable 'Harvest' is a dark fantasy about a high-tech racket in body organs. (At least the high-tech part is fantasy.) A cross between the 2002 thriller 'Dirty Pretty Things' and an episode of 'The Twilight Zone,' it posits a not-too-distant future in which a Big Brother-like multinational company, InterPlanta, headhunts for organ donors in third-world countries. In return for modest modern conveniences, from running water to video equipment, InterPlanta's donors sign away their body parts to rich Westerners, with whom their only communication is a 'contact module' (actually a snazzy light fixture) that projects a nagging video image of the recipient - as well as slick corporate advertorials touting the sardonic mantra 'We Make Lives Worth Living.' 'Harvest' focuses on a small family in India: Om (Debargo Sanyal); his wife, Jaya (Diksha Basu), reported to InterPlanta as his sister, since the company does not use married donors; his mother, Ma (Naheed Khan); and his brother, Jeetu (Rupak Ginn), a prostitute who is also Jaya's lover. Om is initially enchanted with the benefits of his nefarious bargain and in total denial about its consequences, and his mother is only too happy to enjoy the new gadgets that soon arrive, delivered by three perky, robotlike InterPlanta employees (Zina Anaplioti, Sam Chase and Jeffrey Withers). Soon the family is dining on space-age food pellets doled out from the stainless-steel trolley that has replaced their old stove, and their shabby flat has been transformed into something more contemporary. In return, they have to submit to daily interrogations via the contact module by Ginni (Christianna Nelson), the predictably blond-haired, blue-eyed American woman who now essentially owns the rights to Om's body. They also need to be prepared for the unannounced visits of the InterPlanta lackeys, who eventually arrive to take the donor for harvest - and aren't too discriminating about which body they ultimately take. --The New York Times

Om, a young man is driven by unemployment to sell his body parts for cash. Guards arrive to make his home into a germ-free zone. When Jeetu, his brother returns unexpectedly, he is taken away as the donor. Om can't accept this. Java, his wife is left alone. Will she too be seduced into selling her body for use by the rich westerners?