Play on Delhi gang rape to headline top arts fest

Nirbhaya is the creation of South African playwright and director Yael Farber on an idea proposed by American Bollywood actress Poorna Jagannathan. It is set to hit the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival on August 1. Dipankar De Sarkar reports.

A play inspired by the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi last year is set to headline the world's largest arts festival in a production described by its internationally-acclaimed director as "a call to arms".

Nirbhaya is the creation of South African playwright and director Yael Farber on an idea proposed by American Bollywood actress Poorna Jagannathan.

It is set to hit the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival on August 1 for a month-long run.

The play has been described as "a searing new work that cracks open the cone of silence on the staggering depth and breadth of violence perpetrated against women in India".

"The play will speak about sexual violence through the aperture of that one moment," Farber told The Independent.

"This will be a call to arms."

Farber, whose racially-themed Mies Julie was well received, has assembled a part-Indian cast for the unique production where each actor will recount their personal experiences of sexual violence.