Two Billion Beats

Seventeen-year-old Asha is an emphatic rebel, unafraid of pointing out the hypocrisy around her but less sure how to actually dismantle it. Her younger sister, Bettina, wide-eyed and naïve, is just trying to get through the school day without getting her pocket money nicked. Between essays, homework and bus journeys home the two sisters meet outside the school gates each afternoon, smarting at the injustice of the world around them. Bouncing with wit, Sonali Bhattacharyya’s mesmerizing play Two Billion Beats is an insightful, moving and tremendously funny coming-of-age story about the unfairness of growing up in a world where you don't make the rules. It premiered at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in February 2022. An earlier version of the play was performed as part of the Orange Tree's Inside/Outside season, livestreamed in 2021.