Tanika Gupta Archives - North West End UK

12Oct

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

The Empress – Lyric Hammersmith

Tanika Gupta takes on the mammoth task of weaving three narratives spanning over 13 years marking the golden era of the British Empire under the rule of Queen Victoria with her Golden Jubilee celebration. Directed by Pooja Ghai, The Empress reveals the larger truths about Asians, especially Indian Ayahs and lascars in Victorian Britain. A boat carries Rani (Tanya Katyal), an Indian Ayah accompanying a British family, Hari (Aaron Gill), a lascar/sailor, political leaders Dadabhai Naoroji (Simon Rivers), Gandhi (Anish Roy), and Abdul Karim (Raj Bajaj), an Indian servant meant to be a gift to Queen Victoria for her golden jubilee, to the cold British Isles, all with different expectations and dreams. As their narratives progress, colonial atrocities are revealed. While a 16-year-old Rani i...

Great Expectations – Royal Exchange Theatre

With three competing press nights in Manchester theatreland this evening, I chose the opportunity to visit the venerable old Royal Exchange building in St Anne's Square to review their opening offering for the Autumn/Winter season, an adaptation of Charles Dickens 'Great Expectations' which like the character of Estella had great beauty but lacks a little heart. This is one of Dickens most oft adapted novels, only 'A Christmas Carol' and 'Oliver Twist' beat it for popularity and already in 2023 we have had two versions of Dickens tale of class mobility and class intransigence served up, Steven Knight gave us his spiky television adaptation earlier this year and Eddie Izzard's extraordinary one woman show was a huge success in London over the Spring, This ubiquity means that writers are ...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – The Globe

As part of the BBC Culture in Quarantine season, we are offered a selection of Shakespeare’s plays performed at two of the UK’s most well known theatres for Shakespeare. Written in 1596, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a regular feature in theatres’ Summer calendars for their Summer season. We have seen many adaptations of this play as theatres become more creative, but this version is like the making a cocktail, the ingredients can be the same, but it is how much of each ingredient that creates its individual flavour. In Emma Rice’s first play as Artistic Director of The Globe, we were treated to a feast of energy and colour. The play positively buzzed with excitement as we experienced an adventurous modernised version of this much-loved play. The play is ...