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World Premiere of The Employee Dharma Handbook Examines Caste in a Silicon Valley Lab

An urgent look at how caste shapes workplace decisions that critics say needs wider staging for refinement.

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Baasu (Kunal Dudheker, left) checks in with Krish (Kapil Talwalkar) in “The Employee Dharma Handbook.”
Leela (Megan Suri) discusses mission progress with Baasu (Kunal Dudheker) and Krish (Kapil Talwalkar) in “The Employee Dharma Handbook.”

Overview

  • TheatreWorks Silicon Valley mounted Geetha Reddy’s world premiere, which opened Wednesday, and the run continues through Aug. 2 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto.
  • The play centers on a promotion dispute among Indian and Indian American engineers at an aerospace firm and uses that conflict to surface caste-origin prejudice in a U.S. corporate setting.
  • Reviewers praised Reddy’s witty script, Snehal Desai’s direction, the performances of Megan Suri, Kunal Dudheker, Kapil Talwalkar, Ranjita Chakravarty and Kathryn Smith-McGlynn, and Wilson Chin’s lab set design.
  • Critics warned the show is sometimes hard to follow because of heavy technical jargon and introductory monologues and said the ending, a thin romantic subplot and an unconvincing rocket-launch scene weaken the drama.
  • Reviewers and local commentators say the play’s workroom focus makes it especially relevant to Bay Area tech culture and that additional productions are needed to refine the piece and broaden public and workplace conversations about caste.