Output details

British Asian Theatre: Dramaturgy Process and Performance

The monograph is the first to historicise and map the performance practices and dramaturgies of key British Asian theatre practitioners over the past thirty years. The book sets out the range of work produced in Britain and examines the performance praxis in the political and critical contexts that informed the creation of the work. It takes its historical point of departure from Naseem Khan’s seminal report for Arts Council England ‘The Arts Britain Ignores’ (1976) that was the first official sign that the theatrical work by practitioners from ethnic minority communities was to be considered a part of British culture. While there was a great deal of theatrical activity from the Asian community prior to this date, the report heralded a radical reconceptualisation of the relationship between Asian practitioners positioned on the ‘margins’ and the ‘centre’ of British theatre. The monograph focuses on key productions of various companies and playwrights, and explores how and why the work was made by examining the dramaturgies, rehearsal processes, production and critical reception. It looks in detail at the work of Tara Arts, the senior British Asian theatre company in Britain that has been creating work over three decades. It studies their innovative ‘hybrid’ ‘Binglish’ theatre practice, and the text-based realism and intra-cultural concerns of Tamasha Theatre Company. It also looks at Kali Theatre, which produces new writing by South Asian women. The monograph studies key works by playwrights like Hanif Kureishi, Ayub Khan-Din, Gurpreet Bhatti and Parv Bancil. The key concerns are representation, ‘race’, cultural identity, migrancy, diaspora, the postcolonial condition and the construction of nation. The book aims to contest and expand the borders of what we consider to be British theatre by documenting the diversity of Asian theatre practice in Britain.