Goodbye Roy

Synopsis

A London Underground carriage transforms into a sweltering Indian village and memories seep through the cracks

Prya Lal sits rigid on the tube, her carefully constructed London life threatening to crumble with each passing station. As the train’s rhythmic clatter gives way to the distant cry of peacocks, Prya is yanked back into the suffocating embrace of her past. The oppressive heat of rural India rises around her, bringing with it the acrid smell of fear and her father’s looming shadow.

Holly Baxter-Baine’s Goodbye Roy throws us headlong into Prya’s fractured psyche, where the boundaries between past and present blur like watercolours in the rain. As a stark geyser gurgles centre stage, we witness the erosion of a family driven to desperation by grinding poverty. Prya’s Scottish missionary lineage whispers of a complex history, but it’s drowned out by the relentless brutality of her father’s abuse. In the present, a chance encounter on the tube becomes a catalyst, forcing Prya to confront the monstrous memories she’s spent a lifetime burying.