Critical Essays on British South Asian Theatre , livre ebook

y
critical essays on
British South Asian Theatre
cri T ic A l e SSA S o n
British South Asian
critical essays on
TheatreBritish South Asian
Theatre
t his book brings together a wide range of critical voices – practitioners
and researchers active in the feld over thirty years in Britain, Europe and
the USA – to offer signifcant insights into British South Asian theatre.
Contributions by:
• •Rukhsana Ahmad Chris Banfeld Suman Bhuchar
• •Giovanna Buonanno Colin Chambers Claire Cochrane
• • •Susan Croft Jerri Daboo Stephen Hodge Naseem Khan
• • •Chandrika Patel Victoria Sams Christiane Schlote Rajni Shah
It is a companion volume to British South Asian Theatres: A Documented
History, also edited by Graham Ley and Sarah Dadswell. If the premise
of that volume is that British South Asian theatre has been inadequately
documented, the premise of this volume is that it has not received the
diversity of critical attention it requires. The overarching emphasis in both
volumes is on theatre practice and live performance.
Ley and
Dadswell
ISBN 978-0-85989-835-5
ISBN 978 0 85989 835 5 edited by
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER PRESS
9 780859 898355www.exeterpress.co.uk Graham l ey and s arah Dadswellc r i t ic a l e s s ays on
British South Asian Theatre
British South Asian theatre has formed one of the most signifcant
features of British and diaspora culture over the last thirty years.
Despite remarkable achievements and high levels of popular
recognition, it has not received the diversity of critical attention it
requires.
This collection brings together a wide range of critical voices to
offer signifcant insights into the social and historical contexts,
processes of production and audience reception of British South
Asian theatre.
The book is a companion volume to British South Asian Theatres:
A Documented History, which is accompanied by a complimentary
DVD including photographs, articles and clips from play recordings.
The documented history volume is also edited by Graham Ley and
Sarah Dadswell and published by University of Exeter Press.
Graham Ley is Professor of Drama and Theory at the University of Exeter. He
has written and published widely, including From Mimesis to Interculturalism:
Readings of Theatrical Theory before and after ‘Modernism’ (University of
Exeter Press, 1999), A Short Introduction to Ancient Greek Theater (2nd revised
edition University of Chicago Press, 2006) and The Theatricality of Greek Tragedy
(University of Chicago Press, 2007), and is also the author of articles on British
Asian theatre.
Sarah Dadswell is a cultural historian specialising in performance and Honorary
Research Fellow in the Department of Drama at the University of Exeter. She
co-edited Victory over the Sun: The World’s First Futurist Opera (University of
Exeter Press, 2012) with Rosamund Bartlett and is also the author of articles on
British Asian theatre.
Ley and Dadswell, Critical Essays on British South Asian Theatre.indd 1 12/04/2012 16:12:55Exeter Performance Studies
Series editors: Peter Thomson, Professor of Drama at the University of Exeter;
Graham Ley, Professor of Drama and Theory at the University of Exeter; Steve
Nicholson, Professor of Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Theatre at the
University of Sheffeld.
From Mimesis to Interculturalism: Readings of Theatrical Theory Before and After
‘Modernism’
Graham Ley (1999)
British Theatre and the Red Peril: The Portrayal of Communism 1917–1945
Steve Nicholson (1999)
On Actors and Acting
Peter Thomson (2000)
Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror
Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson (2002)
The Censorship of British Drama 1900–1968: Volume One 1900–1932
Steve Nicholson (2003)
The Censorship of British Drama 1900–1968: Volume Two 1933–1952
Steve Nicholson (2005)
Freedom’s Pioneer: John McGrath’s Work in Theatre, Film and Television
edited by David Bradby and Susanna Capon (2005)
John McGrath: Plays for England
selected and introduced by Nadine Holdsworth (2005)
Theatre Workshop: Joan Littlewood and the Making of Modern British Theatre
Robert Leach (2006)
Making Theatre in Northern Ireland: Through and Beyond the Troubles
Tom Maguire (2006)
“In Comes I”: Performance, Memory and Landscape
Mike Pearson (2006)
London’s Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror
Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson (2007)
Theatres of the Troubles: Theatre, Resistance and Liberation in Ireland
Bill McDonnell (2008)
The Censorship of British Drama, 1900–1968: Volume Three, The Fifties
Steve Nicholson (2011)
British South Asian Theatres: A Documented History
edited by Graham Ley and Sarah Dadswell (2011)
Victory over the Sun: The World’s First Futurist Opera
edited by Rosamund Bartlett and Sarah Dadswell (2012)
Ley and Dadswell, Critical Essays on British South Asian Theatre.indd 2 12/04/2012 16:12:55critical essays on
British South Asian
Theatre
edited by
Graham Ley and Sarah Dadswell
Ley and Dadswell, Critical Essays on British South Asian Theatre.indd 3 12/04/2012 16:12:55Cover image: Scene from Rafta, Rafta . . . at the National Theatre, photographed
by Catherine Ashmore (reproduced with kind permission of the photographer).
First published in 2012 by
University of Exeter Press
Reed Hall, Streatham Drive
Exeter EX4 4QR
UK
www.exeterpress.co.uk
© 2012 Graham Ley, Sarah Dadswell and the individual contributors
The right of Graham Ley, Sarah Dadswell and the individual contributors
to be identifed as authors of this work has been asserted by them
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Paperback ISBN 978 0 85989 835 5
Web addresses were correct as the book went to press, except where a date in
parentheses is used to indicate the last time a page was accessed.
Typeset in Sabon, 10 on 12 by
Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster
Printed in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd, Padstow
Ley and Dadswell, Critical Essays on British South Asian Theatre.indd 4 12/04/2012 16:12:55Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Contributors viii
Introduction1
1Naseem Khan—British Asian Theatre: The Long Road to Now,
and the Barriers in-between 7
2 Colin Chambers—Images on Stage: A Historical Survey of
South Asians in British Theatre before 1975 20
3 Susan Croft—Bridging Divides: The Emergence of Bilingual
Theatre in Tower Hamlets in the 1980s 41
4 Rukhsana Ahmad—Experiments in Theatre from the Margins:
Text, Performance and New Writers 50
5 Christiane Schlote—Dramatising Refuge(e)s: Rukhsana
Ahmad’s Song for a Sanctuary and Tanika Gupta’s Sanctuary 66
6 Chris Banfeld —Directing Storytelling Performance and
Storytelling Theatre 79
7 Claire Cochrane—Engaging the Audience: A Comparative
Analysis of Developmental Strategies in Birmingham and
Leicester since the 1990s 100
Ley and Dadswell, Critical Essays on British South Asian Theatre.indd 5 12/04/2012 16:12:55vi CRITICAL ESSAy S o N BRITISH So UTH ASIAN THEATRE
8 Victoria Sams—Patriarchy and Its Discontents: The
‘Kitchen-Sink Drama’ of Tamasha Theatre Company 119
9 Suman Bhuchar—The Marketing of Commercial and Subsidised
Theatre to British Asian Audiences: Tamasha’s Fourteen Songs,
Two Weddings and a Funeral (1998 and 2001) and Bombay
Dreams (2002) 133
10 Jerri Daboo—Mixing with the Mainstream: Transgressing the
Identity of Place 154
11 Giovanna Buonanno—Between Page and Stage: Meera Syal in
British Asian Culture 170
12 Chandrika Patel—Imagine, Indiaah . . . on the British Stage:
Exploring Tara’s ‘Binglish’ and Tamasha’s Brechtian
Approaches 18013Stephen Hodge—British Asian Live Art: motiroti 19614Rajni Shah—o n the Making of Mr Quiver 207
Notes 222
Bibliography253
Index 265
Ley and Dadswell, Critical Essays on British South Asian Theatre.indd 6 12/04/2012 16:12:55Illustrations
1 Abdul Wasi Khan, Naseem Khan’s father, Edgbaston c. 1952 17
2 Vayu Naidu Company’s South (2003), Arion’s Story 87
3 Vayu Naidu Company’s South (2003), A quest for direction 88
4 Vayu Naidu Company’s South (2003), Vayu Naidu 89
5 Vayu Naidu Company, Mistaken . . . Annie Besant in India
by Rukhsana Ahmad (2007): Vayu Naidu, Storyteller
(Act 1, Sc. 1) 93
6 Vayu Naidu Company, Mistaken . . . Annie Besant in India
by Rukhsana Ahmad (2007): Ranjit Krishnamma, Narayaniah
(Act 2, Sc. 3) 96
7 Vayu Naidu Company, Mistaken . . . Annie Besant in India
by Rukhsana Ahmad (2007): Narinder Samra, Krishna,
Ruby Sahota, Sidra (Act 2, Sc. 6) 96
8 o riginal poster and folio image for Bombay Dreams 148
9–10 A4 f yer to promote Bombay Dreams after the offcial
opening 150–51
11Scene from Rafta, Rafta . . . 162
12Rajni Shah, family photograph, November 2003 208
13Rajni Shah, Mr Quiver (in progress), January 2005 210
14Sketches from notebook (2005), by Lucille Acevedo-Jones 211
15Rajni Shah, Mr Quiver, June 2005 212
16 Rajni Shah and Lucille Acevedo-Jones, Mr Quiver,
September 2006 216
Ley and Dadswell, Critical Essays on British South Asian Theatre.indd 7 12/04/2012 16:12:55Contributors
Rukhsana Ahmad co-founded Kali Theatre Company (with Rita Wolf)
and led it into revenue funding. Her theatre credits include Song for a
Sanctuary, River on Fire (fnalist for the Susan Smith-Blackburn International
Prize), The Gate-Keeper’s Wife and Mistaken . . . Annie Besant in India.
Radio adaptations include Wide Sargasso Sea, Maps for Lost Lovers,
Midnight’s Children and The Far Pavilions.
Chris Banfeld has worked as a drama lecturer, freelance theatre director,
and teacher with an interest in Indian theatre for over twenty years. He
has run a range of theatre practice workshops during that time for students
in India—Allahabad, Chennai and Madurai—as well as in the UK. He is
co-author, with Brian Crow, of An Introduction to Post-colonial Theatre
(1996) in which he discusses the plays of Badal Sircar and Girish Karnad.
He currently teaches