by RAJIV JOSEPH

UNDERGROUND RAILWAY THEATER at CENTRAL SQUARE THEATER (CAMBRIDGE, MA), 2018

directed by GABRIEL VEGA WEISSMAN - costume design by LESLIE HELD - lighting design by REZA BEHJAT - props design by NINA ALEXANDER

"High praise should be given to designer Grace Laubacher and her team in particular. They avoid depicting the Taj itself and instead focus on a set design that plays an important role in the storytelling; it is almost a character in the drama. The shocking visual transformations that take place on stage reflect the shifting emotional states of the characters. The Underground Railway Theater production is meant to be a sensory experience – and the set design provides plenty of visceral psychological resonance."
- David Cruz, The Arts Fuse

Agra, India, 1648. Two childhood friends stand guard at the soon-to-be unveiled Taj Mahal, unaware that its completion will set in motion of chain of events that will test their sense of justice, their faith in human enterprise, and their friendship itself.

The design of this production offers us two worlds: first, an abstract realm in which the two friends, alone at their guard posts, contemplate the mysteries of the universe and share ideas for sublime, impossible inventions - their inner lives taking precedent over the practical world. Later, as they are dragged into the emperor's violent agenda, the friends find themselves in a literal dungeon in which the visceral remnants of human brutality are depicted with shocking realness.