Rheology
- In association with The Bushwick Starr
- Written and directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury
- In collaboration with Bulbul Chakraborty
Shayok Misha Chowdhury is an Obie and Whiting Award winning writer and director. He directed the premiere of his playwriting debut, Public Obscenities (NYT Critic’s Pick; Soho Rep, NAATCO, Woolly Mammoth, TFANA), one of three finalists for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Misha’s many-tentacled practice, spanning theater, music, poetry, and film, has earned him The Relentless Award, The Mark O’Donnell Prize, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Princess Grace Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, two Sundance fellowships, and a Fulbright Fellowship. Recent: Prince Faggot (NYT Critic’s Pick; Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep). Up next: Gospel at Colonus (Little Island).
Bulbul Chakraborty is a theoretical physicist, recognized for her contributions to soft condensed matter theory, studying systems far from equilibrium, such as granular materials, amorphous systems, and statistical physics. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a recipient of a Simons Fellowship. Born in India, Bulbul also grew up singing Rabindrasangeet: Bengali writer-composer Rabindranath Tagore’s repertoire of songs about the natural world. She has performed in concert with Misha at Lincoln Center and Little Island. An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Bulbul immigrated to the U.S. in 1974 to get her Ph.D from Stonybrook. She was the first tenured woman physicist at Brandeis University, where she is the Ancell Professor of Physics and former Head of the Division of Science. You are likely to find her singing loudly in her office.
In Rheology, Shayok Misha Chowdhury joins forces with his physicist mother, Bulbul Chakraborty. Bulbul is obsessed with the mystery of sand: how it flows like a liquid, but then jams into a solid. Misha is obsessed with his mother. But they’re running out of time. In this boundary-pushing collaboration, an artist son and his scientist mother challenge each other to a high-stakes experiment.
OBIE AWARD WINNER!
Performance, Bulbul Chakraborty
DRAMA DESK AWARD NOMINEE!
Unique Theatrical Experience
DRAMA LEAGUE AWARD NOMINEE!
Outstanding Production of a Play
Rheology runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
Photos by Maria Baranova.
Creative
Krit Robinson
Set DesignEnver Chakartash
Costume DesignMextly Couzin
Co-Lighting DesignMasha Tsimring
Co-Lighting DesignTei Blow
Sound DesignKameron Neal
Video DesignGeorge Crotty
Music Director and CelloCaitlin Ryan O'Connell
Directing ConsultantSarah Lunnie
DramaturgLisa McGinn
Stage ManagerFor a description of topics and sensory experiences that audiences may find distressing or inaccessible in advance of attending Rheology, please click here to read our Content Transparency Statement. If you have any additional questions about content, age-appropriateness, or stage effects (such as strobe lights) that might have a bearing on patron comfort, please utilize our Access Needs Form or email audienceservices@phnyc.org.
ODD, HILARIOUS, and MIRACULOUS! Leaving Rheology, I felt my head spinning, even as my eyes were misty. Scientists should study it for years.
It’s BEAUTIFUL. It’s RIDICULOUS. It’s UNEXPECTEDLY MOVING.
EXPERTLY CRAFTED! Brutal, daring, and emotionally sharp.
