Geetha Reddy’s Comedy Mixes Indian & U.S. Outrages

by Mary Lou Herlihy

A funny and deeply thoughtful new comedy by Geetha Reddy zigzags its way to a playful crescendo. “The Employee Dharma Handbook” had me in stitches and got me thinking about the insidiousness of social pecking orders.

In Reddy’s play, modern capitalist hierarchy and ancient caste systems collide in a Silicon Valley aerospace lab. Stakes are high at this Space-X style corporation, preparing to launch a rocket AND an IPO.

Director Snehal Desai guides a top notch cast and crew through this provocative world premiere. Five characters buzz around the pristine propulsion lab. Glowing work tables and lab coats make engineers look like doctors. The richly lit stage is cool, and squeaky clean. 

But among the workers, confusion and conflict is growing. Possible sexual discrimination against a female engineer sets employees on edge. Tension builds and surprises keep coming.

We enjoy following Val (masterful Kathryn Smith-McGlynn), the razor sharp HR officer, as she interviews employees. Val admits: “I am a Black woman in HR, at an aerospace company. There isn’t a single day where someone doesn’t treat me like the village idiot.”  With a smartly fitted suit and winning personality, she charms and disarms.

Leela (brilliant Megan Suri) doesn’t feel discriminated against. The hard working engineer insists she is “concern free” regarding a promotion for which she was overlooked. Though later, she confesses to feeling unsure about her worth. She grew up in the U.S., paying only peripheral attention to her Indian heritage…until now.

While Val and Leela get a crash course in the Indian caste system, I flash on a little ditty my Mom shared with a wink:
“And this is good old Boston, / The home of the bean and the cod, / Where the Lowells speak only to Cabots, / And the Cabots speak only to God.”

The ‘Boston Brahmins,’ Lowells and Cabots among them, consider themselves above the fray. Like today’s one per-centers., they provide daily evidence of the corrosive nature of privilege and greed.

When Leela learns that her family comes from Dalits, “Untouchables,” she becomes enraged. She wonders if her family ‘status’  kept her from being promoted.

Meanwhile, cool Krish (charming Kapil Talwalker), on an HB1 Visa from India, feels that rules don’t apply to him. He explains to Val why he hired less qualified Baasu (hilarious Kunal Dudheker). Krish and his buddy Baasu, Indian tech bros, speak a common language.

Clownish Baasu, metaphorically and comically performing a balancing act, is caught between two cultures. He longs for the high-minded “American fairness” promised in the employee handbook. But he chooses the privileges of capitalism and ‘caste.’

Decorum collapses completely in one hilarious scene. Supervisor C.K. (delightful Ranjita Chakravarty) becomes enraged, berating workers in their native language. Although I don’t know what she is saying, clearly ‘auntie’ is scolding the ‘children.’ Val and Leela huddle off to the side in bemused horror. 

In that moment, we all realize how two hierarchies have conspired against them.  

The wild conclusion is a perfectly poetic response to the cruelty of human manipulation. The rich comedy arranges, then rearranges, a better world.

 

“The Employee Dharma Handbook” by Geetha Reddy, directed by Snehal Desai, scenic  design by Wilson Chin, costumes by Lisa Misako Claybaugh, lighting by Amith Chandrashaker, and sound by Erin Bednarz, at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Palo Alto.     

Info: theatreworks.org – to August 2, 2026.

Cast: Ranjita Chakravarty, Kunal Dudheker, Kathryn Smith-McGlynn, Megan Suri, and Kapil Talwalkar.

Banner photo: Kathryn McGynn, Kapil Talwawalkar, Kunal Dudheker, Megan Suri, Ranjita Chakravarty. Photos: Kevin Berne