Bye Bye Bombay - Basic Write Up

 

 

Bye Bye Bombay is a multimedia adventure to Bollywood and beyond! Join Gauri and her puppet guides as she dodges rickshaws, Russian dancers and lecherous directors. A foreigner lost in a maze of masala, will this sulky runaway learn more than just the art of crossing roads in India?

 

Cara Yeates performer and writer of Bye Bye Bombay went to India to write a play.  She didn’t expect to start working in Bollywood.  On her first night in Bombay, a Bollywood tout scouted Cara to appear in a film.  Within weeks Cara had landed an agent, acquired a work visa and acted in a Bollywood feature.  Yeates extended her one-month trip to four.  During her time in India Yeates worked on a range of projects, from guest starring in a Hindi TV show shot in a castle in the desert to selling hair loss cream on the shopping channel.

 

Upon her return from India, Yeates launched into the creative process with Australian director Jonno Katz  (Cactus, Uber Alice -Pick of the Fringe).  The two artists shaped the show through an intensive rehearsal process, described by Yeates as, “coming home, throwing some masala, chutney and ghee on my experiences and voila! Bye Bye Bombay was born.” 

 

Soon after its conception, Bye Bye Bombay hit the road touring to Fringe Festivals across Canada, playing to sold out houses, receiving rave reviews and “Pick of the Fringe” awards.  Since the Fringe, professional venues across Canada and the world have invited Yeates to perform Bye Bye Bombay including The Grand Theater (London, On.), The Shelter Theater (Mexico) and the New York Fringe.  

 

Bye Bye Bombay is the story of a troubled teen who runs away to India to spite her Indo-Canadian mother.  Paralleling Yeates’ story, she plunges into Bollywood and beyond.  A multimedia trip, Bye Bye Bombay incorporates a blend of fast-flashing images and sounds that draw the audience deep into the heart of India.  Cara plays twelve characters in this one woman play.