Laugh out loud in Downward Dog

Join UMass Theater for its season opener, Yoga Play

Breathe in. Buy. Breathe out. BUY. Breathe in. BUY MORE.

In 2013, a certain yoga apparel giant experienced media outrage for tone-deaf public statements and less-than-ethical labor practices. Playwright Dipika Guha riffs on these real-world events to comedic effect in Yoga Play , where stressed-out yoga apparel CEO Joan is one bad decision away from a PR-nightmare of career-ending proportions. Joan’s activewear giant Jojomon™ has recently been charged with fat shaming, exploitative labor practices, and cultural appropriation. To temper a furious customer base, Joan and her team hire yoga master extraordinaire Guruji to inject some much needed authenticity into the brand — which may be the worst (or best?) decision of their careers.

Yoga Play invites audiences to consider corporate work culture, authenticity, appropriation, immigration, and more. The production opens the UMass Theater season in the Curtain Theater on Oct. 17 and tickets are available now.

"It's fast and funny and tongue-in-cheek while also being incredibly nuanced and thoughtful,” Director Rose Schwietz Malla says of her latest directing endeavor. This is something of a sweet spot for her, since she directed the zany and earnest musical Xanadu for us last season. 

Yoga Play explores traditional yoga, westernized yoga, yoga as a commercial product, and yoga as a personal practice, examining the interrelatedness and tensions throughout its evolution. Schwietz Malla, who has had her own complicated relationship with yoga through a decade living as a foreigner in Nepal, resonates with the play’s satirized characters - she knows versions of them in real life. "It goes to extremes of ridiculousness, but you can believe these are people doing the best they can. Everyone is problematic, and also forgivable."  

As the audience is plunged into the corporate antics of the ultra uninformed, we're challenged to ponder how one culture appropriates another, the joys and tensions of belonging, and the quest for authenticity in a world with so much noise. 

Reserve your spot now for this funny, profound Yoga Play!
YOGA PLAY DETAILS
By Dipika Guha
Directed by Rose Schwietz Malla
Oct. 17, 18, 22, 24, 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 23 at 10 a.m.
Oct. 25 at 2 p.m.
The Curtain Theater
Yoga Play tickets

Content Advisory: Racially and culturally sensitive themes and coarse language. Recommended for ages 13 and up
“Yoga Play” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

Tickets and pricing for season events:
$17 general admission, $5 for students, seniors, and Card to Culture patrons, or $19 and $7 through the Fine Arts Center Box Office, which includes a $2 fee.
Season and group discounts available