New play set to spark vaccine and colonisation discussion amongst West Yorkshire school students

This autumn, the acclaimed Theatre of Debate will be bringing their latest production, the world premiere of A Picture of Health, to schools in Bradford and Leeds.

Written by award-winning actress and writer Sudha Bhuchar, the play is set in Mysore, Southern India, in 1805. Here the young Princess Devajamman, newly wed bride of annointed ruler of the Indian Kingdom, Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, was recuited to publicise and promote the smallpox vaccine and her unwitting role was captured in a painting commissioned by the East India Company, with the aim of encouraging participation in the vaccination programme. Irish painter Thomas Hickey’s portrait The Three Queens of Mysore has since been dubbed “one of the most important scientific paintings in the history of medicine in India.”.

A Picture of Health is the story behind that painting - a tale of politics, power, and persuasion by the East India Company to introduce the world’s first ever vaccine, discovered by Edward Jenner, to India, their biggest colonial enterprise.

Designed for young adult audiences, the play explores the themes of vaccination, variolation, colonisation, decolonisation, vaccine hesitancy and the compelling role of the women in the Royal family in early 19th century, Southern India. It will visit Dixons 6th Form Academy – Bradford on Monday 7 October, Dixons Allerton Rhodesway, Bradford on Wednesday 9 October, Dixons Trinity 2 on Thursday 10 October and John Smeaton Academy, Leeds on Friday 11 October. In true Theatre of Debate tradition, every performance is followed by a facilicated deb

The cast comprises John McAndrew as Thomas Hickey/ Mark Wilks/ Harry, Rea Malhotra Mukhtyar as Rajamata Lakshmammani / Arjun’s mother, Nim Gill as Younger Queen Devajammani (YQ) / Devika and Adrian Paul Jeyasingham as Arjun/ Purnaiya. The director is Nigel Townsend, design is by Rachana Jadhav and original music is composed by Tate Hingorani-Short.

A Picture of Health was made possible by the generosity if actor Peter Stenson (1934 to 2020) who left a £150,000 bequest to enable the commissioning of the play and to fund a national tour aimed at young people.

Sudha Bhuchar says:

I have been as fascinated by uncovering the story behind this painting, as by the painter Thomas Hickey, who petitioned to be appointed the ‘official Historical and Portrait painter to the East India company’. His ambition was to travel the country and capture ordinary people of all faiths as well as his official commissions. He wanted to ‘illustrate and adorn with laurels from the British annals, this page of Indian history’. His paintings that survive are the lucrative commissions and in weaving in ordinary, everyday lives into my play, I imagined what else he would have sketched and committed to art. I was also blown away by the story of how Jenner’s smallpox vaccine travelled around the globe and the role of children in ensuring a chain of supply. The weaving or Science and art is challenging and the parallels to our contemporary world is stark as illustrated by the image of this painting going viral online in India in 2020. The young Queen Devajammani has been taken into people’s hearts. I hope the characters and situations I invented will animate her story and provoke much debate.