Tamasha Theatre Company is a British theatre company founded in 1989 by director

Kristine Landon-Smith Kristine Landon-Smith (born 1958) is a British actor, director and artistic director of mixed Australian and Indian parentage. Together with Sudha Bhuchar, she founded the Tamasha Theatre Company in 1989. Life Born in London, Landon-Smith grew up ...

and actor-writer

Sudha Bhuchar Sudha Bhuchar (born ) is a Tanzanian-born British Asian actor, playwright, and co-founder of the Tamasha Theatre Company. She is best known for Tamasha's ''Balti Kings'' (1999), ''A Fine Balance'' (2005), ''The Trouble with Asian Men'' (2005), and ...

. ''

Tamasha Tamasha ( mr, तमाशा) is a traditional form of Marathi theatre, often with singing and dancing, widely performed by local or travelling theatre groups within the state of Maharashtra, India."Tamasha", in James R. Brandon and Martin Banham ...

'' ( mr, तमाशा) is an Indian word meaning "spectacle". The company has brought contemporary Asian-influenced drama to the British stage, mixing naturalism with humour, and succeeding in attracting large Asian audiences. Tamasha's first production was a theatrical adaptation of

Mulk Raj Anand Mulk Raj Anand (12 December 1905 – 28 September 2004) was an Indian writer in English, recognised for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. One of the pioneers of Indo-Anglian fiction, he, togethe ...

's novel '' Untouchable''. ''Untouchable'' was performed in both

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and English, with action taking place around a large Indian village created within

Riverside Studios Riverside Studios is an arts centre on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. The venue plays host to contemporary performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production. Having closed for redevelopment in ...

. The company's second play adapted another novel, ''House of the Sun'' by Meira Chand. The stage set for ''House of the Sun'' depicted a large block of flats, including an on-stage working lift. The overall effect was "a sort of Asian take on the Australian soap opera ''

Neighbours ''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera, which has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons an ...

'', dealing with families in a block of flats in modern-day

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

". For six years the company toured small-scale UK venues with one production a year. However, the award-winning 1996 comedy '' East is East'' ensured them wider national attention. ''Tainted Dawn'' (1997), examining the effects of the

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

on everyday people, played at the

Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially classical music) and the performing arts are i ...

. In 1998 they created ''Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral'', a

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

-inspired musical. The show won the 1998 BBC Asia Award for Achievement in the Arts, and the 1999 Barclays Theatre Award for Best Musical. By the time of '' Balti Kings'' (1999–2000), a comedy set in a Balti restaurant, the company was playing larger venues nationally. Among the many well-known British Asian artists to have worked with the company are actors

Parminder Nagra Parminder Kaur Nagra (born 5 October 1975) is a British actress of Indian Punjabi descent and Sikh heritage. She is known for portraying Jess Bhamra in the film ''Bend It Like Beckham'' (2002) and Dr. Neela Rasgotra in the NBC medical drama s ...

Jimi Mistry Jimi Mistry (born 1 January 1973) is a retired British actor. He is known for appearing in numerous films such as '' East Is East'' (1999), '' The Guru'' (2002), ''Ella Enchanted'' (2004), '' The Truth About Love'' (2005), '' Blood Diamond'' (2 ...

Nina Wadia Nina Wadia (born 18 December 1968) is a British actress and comedian. She is known for portraying Zainab Masood in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', Aunty Noor in Citizen Khan Mrs Hussein in the BBC comedy ''Still Open All Hours'', and for st ...

Chris Bisson Christopher Paul Bisson (born 21 July 1975) is an English actor, known for portraying the roles of Vikram Desai in ''Coronation Street'' (1999–2002), Kash Karib in '' Shameless'' (2004–2007, 2009), and Jai Sharma in ''Emmerdale'' (2009– ...

Ameet Chana Ameet Chana (born 12 September 1975 in Epsom, Surrey, England) is a British-Indian actor. His most notable role is Adi Ferreira in ''EastEnders''. In May 2006 he took over presenting the Breakdown Show (Bhangra Music) on BBC Asian Network (a N ...

Nabil Elouahabi Nabil Elouahabi (born 6 February 1975), often credited as Nabil Elouhabi, is a British- Moroccan actor, known for his role as Tariq Larousi in ''EastEnders'' from 2003 to 2005, as Rashid "Gary" Mahmoon in " Strangers on the Shore" (the 2002 Chri ...

Ila Arun Ila Arun is an Indian actress, TV personality and Rajasthani folk and folk-pop singer. She has appeared in many prominent Bollywood movies such as ''Lamhe'', ''Jodhaa Akbar'', ''Shaadi Ke Side Effects'' and '' Begum Jaan''. Personal life Arun ...

and

Zohra Sehgal Zohra Mumtaz Sehgal (born Sahibzadi Zohra Mumtazullah Khan Begum; 27 April 1912 – 10 July 2014) was an Indian actress, dancer, and choreographer. Having begun her career as a member of a contemporary dance troupe, she transitioned into acting ...

; writers

Ayub Khan-Din Ayub Khan Din (born 1961) is a British writer and actor. He wrote the BAFTA, BIFA and London Film Critics Circle award-winning film '' East Is East'' (1999), adapted from his 1996 Olivier-nominated play of the same name. His 2008 comedy play ...

Abhijat Joshi Abhijat Joshi (born 1 December 1969) is an Indian screenwriter, film director, producer and editor who works in Hindi cinema. His is known for collaboration with Vinod Chopra Productions and director Rajkumar Hirani, as the screenwriter for ''L ...

and

Deepak Verma Deepak Verma MBE (b. 11 February 1969) is a British actor, writer and television/film producer of Indian Punjabi descent and Hindu heritage. His role as market-stall trader Sanjay Kapoor in long-running BBC One soap opera ''EastEnders'' brought ...

; and composers

Shri Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Marathi, Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, ...

and

Nitin Sawhney Nitin Sawhney , D.Mus (; born 1964) is a British musician, producer and composer. A recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, among multiple international awards throughout his career. Sawhney's work combines Asian ...

. Since 2002, the company has run Tamasha Developing Artists – a professional development programme for emerging and established writers, directors, designers and performers.

Productions

*1989: ''Untouchable'', adapted by Sudha Bhuchar and

from the novel of the same title by

*1991: ''House of the Sun'', adapted by Sudha Bhuchar and Kristine Landon-Smith from Meira Chand’s novel *1992: ''Women of the Dust'' by Ruth Carter *1994: ''A Shaft of Sunlight'' by

*1995: ''A Yearning'', adapted from

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

’s ''

Yerma ''Yerma'' is a play by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. It was written in 1934 and first performed that same year. García Lorca describes the play as "a tragic poem." The play tells the story of a childless woman living in rural S ...

'' by Ruth Carter *1996: '' East is East'' by

*1997: ''A Tainted Dawn'' by Sudha Bhuchar and Kristine Landon-Smith *1998: ''Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral'', adapted from the film '' Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!'' by Kristine Landon-Smith and Sudha Bhuchar *1999: ''Balti Kings'' by Sudha Bhuchar and Shaheen Khan *2001: ''Ghostdancing'' by

, based on

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

's ''

Thérèse Raquin ''Thérèse Raquin'' is an 1868 novel by French writer Émile Zola, first published in serial form in the literary magazine ''L'Artiste'' in 1867. It was Zola's third novel, though the first to earn wide fame. The novel's adultery and murder ...

'' *2002: ''Ryman and the Sheikh'' by Sudha Bhuchar, Kristine Landon-Smith, Chris Ryman, Rehan Sheikh and

Richard Vranch Richard Leslie Vranch (born 29 June 1959) is an English actor, improviser, comedian, writer and musician. He is known for providing the music for the British TV series ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' Early life Vranch graduated from Cambridge Un ...

*2003: ''All I Want is a British Passport'' by Nadim Sawahla *2003: ''Strictly Dandia'' by Sudha Bhuchar and Kristine Landon-Smith *2005: ''The Trouble with Asian Men'', created by Sudha Bhuchar, Kristine Landon-Smith and Louise Wallinger *2006: ''

A Fine Balance ''A Fine Balance'' is the second novel by Rohinton Mistry, published by McClelland and Stewart in 1995. Set in "an unidentified city" in India, initially in 1975 and later in 1984 during the turmoil of The Emergency, the book focuses on four ...

'', adapted by Sudha Bhuchar and Kristine Landon-Smith from the novel by

Rohinton Mistry Rohinton Mistry (born 1952) is an Indian-born Canadian writer. He has been the recipient of many awards including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2012. Each of his first three novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His ...

*2006: ''Child of the Divide'' by Sudha Bhuchar *2008: ''Lyrical MC'' by Sita Brahmachari *2008: ''Sweet Cider'' by Em Hussain *2009: ''Wuthering Heights'' by

; music by Sheema Mukherjee and Felix Cross; lyrics by Felix Cross *2010: ''The House of Bilquis Bibi'' by Sudha Bhuchar

References

External links

Tamasha Theatre Company website"Tamasha theatre company turns 21"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 26 July 2010. {{Authority control Theatre companies in the United Kingdom Theatre companies in London Arts organizations established in 1989 Asian-British culture