The Royal Court are currently presenting a series of play readings of classic works by British Asian/ Indian writers. We asked one of the playwrights, Suman Bhuchar, to talk about her career and what we can expect from this mini-festival
This year I will be marking forty years of being involved in ‘theatre’ – whatever that means: I originally began an actor at Tara Arts; moved to pr and marketing when Sudha Bhuchar & Kristine Landon-Smith co founded Tamasha (1989), and then later worked with a range of companies to champion unheard voices, intercultural work and bring new audiences to the theatre.
It wasn’t a job or career as such, it was more the passion to bring to the fore stories from the Asian experience in the UK and create an artistic landscape that was reflective of British society. The journey goes on. I moved on from one thing to the next, but over time I have become aware that I am a ‘living archive’, with a lot of knowledge about the plays, artists and Asian theatre companies working in the UK but as a group of artists and practitioners we lack a joined up story.
Retracing Our Footsteps is my attempt to begin a conversation around an effort to create a South/British Asian theatre archive of work (i.e. work from this community that has been produced or performed in the UK) and to get people to explore the parallels to contemporary experiences.
Asian artists have been creating and putting on theatre in the UK from the beginning of the 20th century and we don’t know about it So, last year, Sudha Bhuchar (My sister, who now runs Bhuchar Boulevard) and myself approached the Royal Court because we realised it was the 50th anniversary of a play called, A Touch of Brightness by Indian writer, Partap Sharma – and it was the first ‘Indian or Asian’ play ever put on by the English Stage Company. What made it more exciting was the fact that amongst that original cast were three iconic actors who we know as ‘household’ names – Roshan Seth, Saaed Jaffrey and Zohra Segal (The latter two are sadly, late). The play was performed on 5th March 1967 and then went on to be recorded for BBC Third Programme – where Judi Dench played the main character of Rukhmini (a girl sold into prostitution) and the now, late maestro, Ravi Shankar composed the music! (It was transmitted in November 1967).
This play was originally due to be performed at the first Commonwealth Arts Festival in 1965 but was prevented from doing so, because of a campaign against the play as protestors felt that the subject matter it depicted was bad for the image of India - i.e. child prostitution, street child, and corruption -- this led to the government banning the play so it didn't have an outing at the festival. (The ban was lifted in 1972 and it has been performed since in India and abroad but not the UK).
Retracing Our Footsteps is three nights of play readings of classic works by British Asian/ Indian writers, celebrating a some of the rich canon of work that is rarely seen on stage. This mini retrospective features three plays that were originally performed at the Royal Court. These are Pratap Sharma’s A Touch of Brightness, Hanif Kureishi’s Borderline and Harwant Bains’ Blood.
Borderline was originally performed in 1981 and it’s a story of the pressures on the Asian community. It was drawn from research in Southall after the riots of 1979.As Haniif Kureishi wrote in the author’s note to the original play script: “I became interested in the idea when I began to think about how ubiquitous the immigrant is in the twentieth century. In fact like the refugee and the political prisoner, the immigrant is a kind of modern Everyman, a representative of movements and the aspirations of millions of people.” Something that echoes even now!
Blood by Harwant Bains is an attempt by the author to dialogue with his parent’s generation “those men and women who cut away their roots to journey across the world and build what they hoped might be a better life”.
The play begins amidst the horrific carnage of the Indian Partition of 1947 and follows the journey of two young Sikhs from their rural community in the Punjab to the Britain of 1960’s.
The readings will be directed by Kristine Landon-Smith, Kully Thiarai
I hope that today’s audience will have chance to hear these works and see how it resonates with their own voice in exploring their identity and cultural history, and this retrospective will serve as a momentum to create a lasting archive of this work.
https://royalcourttheatre.com/
Wed May 30 – Fri June 1 7.30pm
Tickets: £10 020 7565 5000
@BhucharBvrd @royalcourt
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