As the world continues to implode, our environment is in more danger than ever, thanks to that orange clown leading our country. He is dismantling every system we have in place that could help us survive and certainly could have saved so many lives in the recent Texas floods.

Thank Goodness for Playwrights like Rishi Varma who is tackling the importance of taking care of our environment in his new play, Sulfur Bottom.

In this interview, Rishi answered my call to share:

• How he decided to write Sulfur Bottom
• When he's stayed in a place he loved, even though it wasn't healthy
• The weirdest trait he's found in someone else
• How he hopes this play will help bring awareness to our climate needs
• Scuba Diving in NYC
• So much more

Connect with Rishi: Website, Instagram

Sulfur Bottom marks Rishi's Off-Broadway debut as a playwright.

Bold, surreal, and emotionally raw, Sulfur Bottom is a new eco-gothic drama that explores the quiet devastation of environmental collapse through the eyes of one family over 40 years. Set in a decaying home on the edge of industrial sprawl, the play transforms the slow violence of pollution into something both intimate and unsettling.

Buoyed by the promise of jobs and economic development, a series of factories plague a small town. But with reports of dangerous chemicals leaking from the industrial plants, a young woman must make impossible choices to protect her loved ones.

Set over 40 years, Sulfur Bottom sees an embattled family forced to confront generations of environmental injustice—and maybe just a few talking animals along the way.

With dark humor, vivid imagery, and the occasional beached whale, Sulfur Bottom blends grounded storytelling with moments of theatrical absurdity, offering a striking meditation on legacy, denial, and what it means to survive in a poisoned world.

Sulfur Bottom will play at The Jerry Orbach Theater in NYC on Wednesdays (7:30pm EST) and Saturdays (1pm EST) beginning on August 13, 2025. Click here for tickets!

1. This summer your new play, Sulfur Bottom, will be at The Jerry Orbach Theater in NYC. What are you looking forward to most about this? Getting to see the amazing team we have bring the story to life. Everybody is putting their own spin on it: the director, the actors, the designers.

It’s one thing to sit and write it alone in your room, but it’s something else entirely to see how people interpret and add to it. It’s why I love doing theatre.

2. What made you want to write Sulfur Bottom? I saw a story about someone staying in a house they knew was making them sick. It sparked an idea to write a play about that, and then the whale came in because who doesn’t love a good whale in a play?

I also feel like environmental justice is such an important issue, and I would love to see more stories about the consequences of it, so I decided to make one myself!

3. What did you learn about yourself through writing this show? That I’m just a little bit insane? My writing schedule is nonsensical, some scenes I wrote were too crazy even for this piece, and just like the play itself, my process was nonlinear. But somehow, through all that insanity, we have a show for people to see. So maybe something is working?

Cast of Sulfur Bottom

4. Press notes state that Sulfur Bottom "stems from a deep contemplation of what it means to stay in a place that one loves, even when it feels increasingly unhealthy." When have you stayed in a place you loved, but it was actually unhealthy? Without naming names, I’ve definitely stayed in relationships, both personal and professional, that I knew were unsustainable. But they meant something to me, or felt tied to my identity, so I convinced myself to stick it out.

That push and pull, the attachment vs. the cost, was something I wanted to unpack in this play. We all do it, in different ways. Sometimes it’s a relationship, sometimes a job, sometimes an actual physical place. Sometimes it’s a choice, and sometimes you don’t have one.

5. The show also explores the "quiet devastation of environmental collapse." In today's world, with our climate resources being reduced, (thanks to you know who), how do you feel Sulfur Bottom can help bring awareness to our need for these resources? I think the power of theatre and art in general is that it focuses on the specific, emotional consequences. It’s much easier to ignore statistics, studies, etc. than to ignore people standing right in front of you.

Sulfur Bottom shows the lasting effects of environmental damage on generations of a family, and by watching that, seeing it, feeling it, I hope people can walk out with a greater sense of urgency.

6. How has our neglect for the environment affected your personal relationships? It’s added a layer of urgency and anxiety to a lot of decisions: where to live, whether to have kids, even how to travel. Some friends share that urgency, and it brings us closer. Others don’t, and that can be frustrating.

I think a lot of people are quietly grieving the future they thought they’d have, and that grief shows up in relationships, even when we don’t call it out.

Rishi Varma, Photo Courtesy of Skollar PR

7. Who or what inspired you to become a playwright? When I was a kid I remember seeing Book of Mormon (very age appropriate!) and I was blown away by how bold it was. It really made me understand that theatre doesn’t have to be one thing: it can be absolutely wild and nuts and completely out of the box.

As I got older, I really gravitated towards the works of Suzan Lori-Parks, Rajiv Joseph, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and playwrights in that world. Their form breaking work showed me what theatre could be and made me want to make work of my own.

8. Your bio states that your writing mixes humor and heart to dig into the weirdness of how people behave. What is the weirdest trait you have found in someone? Oddly enough I find that weird people are the norm. For instance, I just found out that some people don’t always have a song stuck in their head.

I go around every day with some song playing in the back of my mind at all times, and so maybe to me it’s just unbelievable that there are people that walk around with just silence in their brain? What must that be like?

9. Outside of playwriting, you teach SCUBA Diving here in NYC.

• How did you get into SCUBA Diving? I started SCUBA Diving about 15 years ago in my home state, California (Monterey and the Channel Islands). I think it all came from Finding Nemo, which was the first movie I ever saw in theaters. I became absolutely obsessed with sharks and sea life and somehow it just stuck with me. It was my first lesson that a great piece of art can shape someone’s entire life. Because here I am, decades later, teaching SCUBA!
• Where in NYC do you teach it? I work at a shop called Scuba Network. It’s on 6th and 21st in Manhattan. But we use a pool in the Lower East Side for all of our classes.
• What is the most unusual discovery you have made in the NYC waters while SCUBA diving? Luckily we don’t do much diving in New York City (no Hudson River diving for me!), but in the Lower East Side pool I’ve found what looked like an engagement ring. But the unwritten rule of NYC pools is: what goes in never comes out.

10. What is something we didn't get to talk about in this interview that you'd like my audience to know about you? You know how people say you never forget to ride a bike? I’m first hand proof that that is definitely not true. That’s not super important to the play, but it feels like a core part of my personality.

Rishi Varma, Photo Courtesy of Skollar PR

More on Rishi Varma:

Rishi Varma writes at the crossroads of comedy and drama, often veering completely into the surreal and absurd. A playwright, screenwriter, actor, and producer based in New York City, whose work has appeared at Theaterlab and Urban Stages.

Rishi studied playwriting at Northwestern University, where he led a full production and writer’s room before moving to NYC to become an actor-writer (very original!). His writing mixes humor and heart to dig into the weirdness of how people behave. And sometimes, it can get very weird.

Outside of writing and acting, Rishi teaches SCUBA diving in the city (yes, really). He also shares life’s daily drama with his dog, a steadfast companion who remains unimpressed by résumés or curtain calls.