“Empty Night” performance at the Richmond Fringe Festival

“Empty Night” is a play written and directed by Abhisek Bhattacharya.

An injured thief runs into a wounded Bengal tiger under the shadow of a prominent politician’s house, where the hunters are celebrating a successful hunt. The play portrays how the construction of a dam near a village destroys the forest and farmland, and disrupts the lives, hopes, and dreams of a farmer who turns to stealing, and a tigress who must take care of her cubs in whatever way she can. Their chance encounter brings hidden questions to the surface as both the creatures, apparently on the verge of death, both trying to fend for their children, confront what life has in store for them. Both make ultimate sacrifices, and in the process, one learns what it truly means to be a real human.