Rishi Varma knows not everyone will love his new play Sulfur Bottom—that’s the point. The playwright and actor is bending time and the traditional format with the production, which takes place over four decades in a small town overrun by industrial factories. Oh, and there are some talking animals involved.

In an interview with TVBrittanyF.com, Rishi discussed how he was first introduced to theater, and what makes it the right medium to tell stories like Sulfur Bottom. He also explained how the production is different from what audience members will expect, and what he hopes they’ll take away after the experience. This is something that truly is unique, and here’s how it came together.

Brittany Frederick: You are both a playwright and an actor. What made theater the right medium for you as an artist?

Rishi Varma: There was a certain point when I was younger— I think it was like 2012 or something—and I saw Book of Mormon. I was a middle school boy at the time and I was like, musicals are dumb. I hate musicals. Theater is not cool. I saw the musical, and I was like wait, this is different than I thought musicals were supposed to be. It was like a gateway. And now I like the classics as well.

For me, theater really is a medium that you can do so many weird things in, moreso than other mediums. And so this play, which is absurd and weird, [is] the best place to do crazy stuff and to play with form and character and time and animals and all that kind of stuff. That’s why I love theater, is that there is no formula to it, in the best way.

Where did the idea for Sulfur Bottom come from? What made it appeal to you enough to see it through and turn it into a full-fledged production?

There are certain things when I’m coming up with play ideas where I’m like this is going to work, or this is at least going to be interesting for me to dive into for a couple months, or years in this case. And usually it comes on just like one or two small ideas—if we combine these, now we have something dramatic.

I saw a story about a guy who was in a house in an industrial area, and an interviewer was like, why don’t you just leave? And he’s like, I don’t think it’s that easy—and also, who can I give it to? That’s kind of cruel, if I know this is hurting me, to sell it to someone else. That sparked a lot of ideas, and then I was also really in a mode of experimenting with animals on stage.

In theater, there’s something really cool you can do. If you have an actor on stage and you say hey, that’s a whale, people are like “Oh, that’s a whale.” It’s essentially just belief. I was really excited about those ideas. So the idea of a whale and a house in an industrial area that’s poisoning its inhabitants, those came together, and I was like this is interesting to me, and something that I want to dive into, and I think is important and has relevance in our lives.

What’s your favorite aspect or part of the finished product?

I’ll preface this by saying as much as I would love everybody to see this play—and I hope everybody does—it is not a play that I think everybody’s going to be like, “I love this.” It’s non-linear, and there’s memories that leak in, and it can be a lot in terms of the things we throw out onto stage. And that’s what I love about it, though, is that we mess with structure in some really cool ways.

It’s one thing for me to just write that in a script and be like “Okay, now it’s this time,” but my favorite part of this production is seeing the designers come in, and the lighting and the set and the props and costume and sound, and basically transform the space and the time into all of our amazing moments. So without saying too much, pay attention to our design elements. They’re guiding you in the story. And our designers are, I think, the best in the world, honestly.

We do throw a lot out there, so just enjoy the ride, is what I would tell people. And make your own interpretations of what we’re telling you, because it’s surreal, and we use magical realism, and we have fun with things. And we also are telling a story that, to me, is really, really important, and deserves to be told.

This is such a novel idea and also, off-Broadway is a different environment than a Broadway show. So what’s going to be your standard of success for Sulfur Bottom? Have you set any goals for yourself?

I’m already prepared for the fact that some people are going to love it, and some people are going to say, “What the hell is this?” And honestly, I kind of enjoy that, because it means we’re doing something, taking some risks, whether or not everything lands. I appreciate that kind of theater that makes people talk.

And for anybody who doesn’t know too much about the insides of off-Broadway, it’s pretty hard to make it commercially viable, so for me, my goal has always been to put this show up and to tell this story. It’s been a couple of years of working on it and now we can have people see it, experience it, get the actors going and the designers.

Also, we are partnering with some really cool organizations as we move into the climate world of this story. We’re partnering with WE ACT for Environmental Justice, which is a Harlem-based organization specifically focusing on fighting for healthy communities in New York City, and so we take donations at the end of every show for that organization. We’re an event for New York City Climate Week.

And so my goal is that people can come to the show and see a full cast of color experiencing environmental injustice, and to see the climate crisis maybe a different way than they have before… It’s far more important to me that some people really take a lot from it, and that it helps organizations than it is [that] it’s a smashing success.

Is there anything else you feel is important, or would want the audience to know either before seeing the play, or after they’ve seen it?

September 20 through October 1, we’re doing our Climate Week performances. We’re doing four of those. I’ve mentioned climate week to a lot of my friends, and they’re like “Oh, that’s cool. What is Climate Week?” They do it every year. There’s hundreds of events around the city. Some are free, some have small costs. Go to the Climate Week website and just scroll through all the events. There’s some really, really, really cool stuff on there—from other performances or talks or meditative sessions or healing circles. All these really cool things that are all about solutions to heal the environment and solutions to combat climate change.

Sulfur Bottom is currently playing at the Jerry Orbach Theater in New York City. For more information, visit the production’s website. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Skollar PR.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.