Playwright, actress, filmmaker, artist, author and activist, Radha Menon Credit: Stephanie Beeley
Welcome to Small Change.
Today, I’m in conversation with playwright, actress, filmmaker, artist, author and activist Radha S. Menon.
Stateless in the UK until age seventeen, activist and multi-disciplinary artist Radha S. Menon emigrated to Regina, Saskatchewan in 1995 where her performance career abruptly ended, and her writing career began.
Radha’s plays have been produced at theatre festivals in Canada, the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), and India. They include my favourite, Blackberry, as well as Ganga’s Ganja, Rukmini’s Gold, Rise of the Prickly Pear, The Circus, The Washing Machine and most recently, The Devi Triptych -- a series that explores the contemporary reimagining of traditional Hindu tales.
Radha also founded Red Beti Theatre in 2011. Pronounced Red Bayti, the name means red daughter in English. Red Beti is Hamilton’s first feminist Indigenous, Black and People of Colour (IBPOC) theatre company.
The internationally celebrated playwright and current Artist-in-Residence at Hamilton Arts Council, Radha is passionate about the representation of marginalised communities on stages, believing that inclusion is imperative.
As such, Radha was a founding member of the Coalition of Black and Racialised Artists (COBRA) and served on the board of directors for threes years.
Her areas of expertise include women’s rights, Dalit’s rights and the decolonization of theatre, its practices and spaces.
Radha is also the recipient of the City of Hamilton’s 2020 Arts Innovation Award and the 2016 Theatre Award.
Radha is in the midst of an exceptionally fruitful year. Much of the art and the plays she’s creating are rooted in a 2019 trip to rural Karnataka, India. Radha was on a mission to find women who identify as Devadasi — a girl or young woman who underwent the Hindu religious practice of being "married" to a deity.
That trip, and the work that has come from it, are part of an ongoing healing journey as Radha explores the history of women’s rights in India within the context of her own family history.
Find out why Radha travelled to Karnataka to speak with several Devadasis and how these women became central to her multi-media project, Touched By Devi, that is at the Art Gallery of Hamilton until January 5, 2025.
Film and photos from Touched by Devi Credit: Joseph Hartman
This past summer Radha took up residence at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts — Brock University’s downtown St. Catharines campus.
On August 30, Radha invited folks to the final development workshop of Devi Triptych, three plays each centered on a Hindu Goddess and set in the present day.
Sita’s Revenge focuses on Devi Sita known for her courage, purity, dedication, loyalty, and sacrifice. But Sita’s strengths are tested when she finds herself in an arranged marriage and emigrating to Hamilton, Ontario where she spends her days and nights waiting for her husband to return home from work.
A Brick Lane Bargain transports the audience to London, England where Radha, the supreme Goddess of love, tenderness, compassion and devotion, works selling flowers in a street market and loving a man — aka the God Krishna — who can never be hers.
The final part of the triptych, A Pot Made of Sand, focuses on Goddess Renuka whose devotion was so powerful that she creates a pot from sand that can hold water — and she repeats that act every day until distraction leads to her downfall.
Each modern Goddess faces tests, threats and gender-based violence never experiencing true happiness in this patriarchal world. Yet, each ultimately triumphs in her own way — something that was impossible in the classical male authored versions of these Goddess stories.
The full-length production of Devi Triptych will be featured at Red Beti Theatre in the summer of 2026.
Scene from Devi Tritych Credit: Radha S. Menon
Radha and I also discuss the significance of the name Red Beti and why she changed the troupe’s name from its original Anglicized version of “Betty.”
We’ll take a look at her brilliant play, Blacberry, set in present-day Hamilton and performed in Corktown’s Carter Park in August 2022.
When I interviewed Radha for an article about Blackberry she told me, “This is not a play about being comfortable. I’ve never been comfortable in my life as a non-white person living in colonized shoes. And, I imagine neither are Indigenous or other racialized folk. It’s a privilege to be comfortable.”
And, I ventured to add, white Canadians like to pretend that everyone has the same rights, the same opportunities, and the same great standard of living. But real life, and Blackberry, lays bare the truth — that this is just a (white) lie.
Cast of Blackberry Credit: Radha S. Menon
On September 22 the Art Gallery of Hamilton hosted the book launch for Radha’s new book Blackberry. Her first book, Rukmini’s Gold, was also an original play. Radha is currently working on her first novel, Death Cry of a Peacock.
I also wanted to be sure to mention that Red Beti Theatre is launching its fourth annual Decolonise Your Ears New Play Reading Festival at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, Ontario.
The pay-what you want event features works by playwrights Sheetala Bhat, Shiann Croft and Shaharah Gaznabbi performed as developmental workshops on October 3, 4 and 5 respectively.
Give yourself permission to find out more about Radha S. Menon and her multi-disciplinary, intersecting work that’s making invaluable contributions within her Hamilton community, across the country and around the world.
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article and listened to my podcast. With your continued support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
Music: Real Estate by UNIVERSFIELD is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org.
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