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My name is Dharmash Patel and I'm an actor. And you were born in the UK?
I was born in the UK. I was raised in London. Er, well I was born in Kettering, raised in
London, er, went to, moved to Harrow when I was about twelve, and then went to uni in
Liverpool. And then travelled round ever since, really, like a hobo.
And you feel London is your home? London, London is, yeah, without a shadow
of a doubt, em... It's funny, because whenever you go across the world, people always say
where are you from, and I always find myself saying I'm from London. I never say I'm from
England, and it's strange because when you come back to London, you feel like you're
home. It it it's a strange concept I know. I know it sounds bizzare. We've all got our
home towns and I think that's what the world is becoming now. It's not becoming about what
country are you from. I think it's about what what place you're from and what that does
to you. Em, because I don't know what it is to be English. I know what it is to be someone
from London. Em, I know the people of London. Er, people in Britain. They are so, they are
so versatile, they are so diverse, you know, that there isn't just one type of person and
I think that's what London is for me it's a caco, like a cacophony of colours and cultures
and music and art and theatre and football. Football is very important to me. Em, so yeah,
London is home. Yeah. And how do you define home?
Do you know, I know when I'm home when my shoulders drop. When I'm in London, I feel
my shoulders drop. The moment I get on the train, the Underground, and I know it sounds
strange, but, you relax into a pace, and it's very fast, it's very energetic, but there's
also a serenity to it. There's also a feel. It's hard to explain the feeling. It's hard
to explain something that you can't, that you can't explain. It's just something you
know, you know. Yeah. So let's talk about the journey you've taken
in your life then because you obviously have to start from a place and a home is a very
good place to start from. Yeah. Always a great place.
So how do you see your artistic journey? Em...till now? I I think my artistic journey
began as a kid. Em, it was a lot of, I grew up in a, my parents are immigrants. They came
with £26 and nothing else. And you quickly realize you don't have toys to play with.
You don't have anything but your imagination. And I had three older sisters. I never had
brothers, but we had loads of animals in the house. So I'd go on these little adventures
with the dog that I used to have. And I know that sounds bizarre but when you don't have
anything, any materialistic stuff what you quickly find is that your imagination becomes
your, your playground. And that, for me was. When I kind of thought, looking back, I kind
of go yeah, that's where, that's where it began. As a kid, growing up with not very
much. Having to make my own fun and...and not having many friends because you are the
only hindu person in Whitechapel because it was a predominantly Bangladeshi community
and there was my one black friend, Clifton, and we used to get into a lot of fights as
kids 'cause we were, we were the outcasts in that community. Em, and so we we would
have our own adventures and stuff. And my parents had a shop, you know. So we were well
known in the community. Em...I've gone off track. What was the question?
That's absolutely great because that's the journey isn't it?
Yes. So that's where it began I think. That's where my journey began. Em, playing with Clifton.
Em, going to the park with the dog and going on adventures. Em, and my sister, well, she
was always into dance. She was into kathak dance and she's still is, she still does it.
And she would dress me up, and, you know, she would make me do dance and would watch,
em, like Bollywood films, classic Bollywood films, black and white films, and there was
a lot of singing and dancing in that. So I was always surrounded by it. Always, always.
Em, but I don't think I was ever conscious of it. It, for me, it was just part of my
upbringing. And when I went to school, I...I had a brilliant drama teacher who invited
me into this world of theatre, who, I think she gave me the bug for it. Em, but I knew
I could never do it 'cause it was never an option, you know. It was never something I'd
take seriously. I still don't take it very seriously, because, it's a bizarre concept
to be paid to do what you love in this world, isn't it. It is. Er, think of this seven billion
people on this planet and how many of those people actually get to do what they love.
And you quickly realize that you're actually in a very privileged position. But not when
you are younger. I think it comes with age, and that sounds condescending, but it's, because
people said it to me when I was growing up, but it's true. With age I think you begin
to realize what's important and what you want to do with your career. And then you meet
other people along the way. Em, I went to a place called, er em, Hope Street, in Liverpool,
which was a physical theatre school and that, that one...that one thing molded me into who
I am today. Because I met the likes of Paul Hunter and Madani Younis and Improbable and
Complicite and people like that who made theatre more than what we know it. What I knew of
it at the time. Very bland, very sort of simplistic. Nothing very exciting. And when you meet those
people, you quickly realize of what you want to achieve with your career and the people
you want to admire and the people you want to, to look up to. And when you realise that,
I think you begin to think about the work that you want to do. And the influences that
they have had over your work. And so you quickly forget about the colour of your skin. For
me, it was very much about that. It's was forgetting about who I am or where I'm from,
although that will always stay with me. I think, the older I get, the more decisions
I get to make for myself, and I choose not to be a colour. I choose not be a face for
a type of theatre. I choose not to be type cast, I hope. Because if you look at the likes
of Paul Hunter and he will always have a magnificent affect on my career, you quickly realize,
nothing can stop you, as long as your imagination is still working. As long as you're still
presenting work which excites you, and which you want to explore and you want to share.
Em, and he does everything. He writes, he directs, em, he's a performer. Phenomenal
performer. Phenomenal director, and, a brilliant improviser. Him and Hayley Carmichael who
have Told By An Idiot. And you quickly realize those are the people I want to be like when
I grow up. When I grow up, I want to be like them. That's my journey yah.
And it's great that you have this, you don' have a problem being South Asian as such,
because I think the older generation did encounter that. They found that they did not have the
opportunities that perhaps you do now, coming from London and how it's developed as a community.
Yeah, of course. Which is I suppose the reason why you say
it's home. Yeah, of course. But I think there are so
many influences in your life aren't there. Your parents. What I what I realize. I didn't
realize at the time. Of course my parents had a problem with me wanting to be an actor.
Of course they did. Because who in their right mind turns around to their parents and goes,
I'm I'm going to be an actor. I'll be brilliant. I'll make some money and will, I'll look after
you, It'll be it'll be great. My dad's first reaction was, are you stupid. And my reaction
was yes, I I think I am. It's alright. But it takes time, doesn't, with parents. Like
everything else. It's relationship you you're constantly building on. It's like a relationship
with a partner. If you don't grow together, you're not, you are going to grow apart. And
that's exactly what it is with my parents. We've, my career's grown with them and they've
learnt to accept the fact that I can make a living from being an actor. Not, full time.
'Cause, let's face it, unless you are a superstar, you are not going to make a a living from
it. But I I do OK, and I'm inspired by the by the people I work with. And there's nothing
better than wake up in the morning and go, I get to go to work today and do what I love.
And. I think, the older I got, I quickly realized that, my parents didn't have a problem with
me being an actor. What they had a problem with was making sure they did the absolute
best for me growing up, and gave me the best opportunities. We moved from Whitechapel to
Harrow when I was twelve, because, they knew that if they stayed in Whitechapel I was going
to get in trouble. And I was starting to get in trouble, em, and we moved to Harrow. And
they took me to a better school. And I was influenced by those people. Em, I'm not saying
everyone that grows up in Whitechapel turns out to be a bad egg. It's not true. It's just
that I had nothing better to do with my time. I wasn't around people that could influence
my life. Em, yeah, parents are a funny thing. Em, they they just want the best for you I
guess, bt yeah. So the question of influences is really important
isn't it. Because you are talking about influences that are quite universal in your own career
now as opposed to quite community ethnic, you know, that that sort of influence. So,
do you still have an association through your work, with the South Asian community. Like
for example, this play that you are working on.
Yes. Well ay the moment, we are working on a play based on the South Asian gay community
and we're asking a question of what is their voice and how can we, how can we hear their
voice. For me, it doesn't matter what the what the identity of the company is. What
matters to me is the content. So you could say that I've done four projects which was
classify as South Asian. Er one of them was pretty much after the 7/7 bombings with Rasa
and we worked on a production where about a young, a family, a family who encounter
a, whose youngest son, whose oldest son is a, an Imam, and the youngest son is caught
up in this radical, the radical views. It's an interesting story because it tells the
story of the family, em, and where they are, at that state in time when we face the 7/7
bombings. The second project I worked on was with Many Younis, em, was about a young boy
dying in police custody and what affect that has on the family. And also the fact that,
at the time, not not a single policeman had been convicted of death death in custody since
the 60s. That was for me a fascinating subject. The 7/7 was a fascinating subject. Em, I worked
with Kali, er, on Tagore's women, and for me, Tagore's women is a fascinating subject,
Er, well Tagore is a, I mean, he is someone we all admire, er, from South Asian community,
because he was ahead of his time. He was the one that advocated women's rights and voices.
He, he was a lothario wasn't he slept with many women. He wrote beautiful poetry. He
was well educated. He didn't come from a, from a hard background. He was, he came from
an affluent background. But still a magical man. Em, yeah. This, and of course this project
which is again voicing the voices which we don't really hear in South Asian communities.
And so for me it's not about the, the, where the company is from. It's more about the project
that we do. In ten years, it must say a lot for a young performer, whose only done four
projects, er, with what we identify as South Asian theatre companies. Because, yeah, because
I don't feel I can identify with them. What I can identify with is the content. The project,
the project's content. Like the 7/7 bombings in my beautiful city. Like someone dying in
police custody and no one being responsible for it and how that affects a family. Em,
Tagore, someone that you grow up with admiring, and the gay community, which doesn't have
a voice in our own what we describe as South Asian community. So those are interesting
subjects for me. And em, would you consider that the em, label
like South Asian theatre is useful or not useful?
I think, do you know, I was thinking about this, and I've been thinking about this for
a long time, and I think for me, as time's gone on, I've, to begin with, I'd never accepted
it. I hated it. I hated the, the notion of it. Because it pigeon holes you. It turns
you into something you may not be. Er cultural experiences you may not have experienced,
er, because it's all identified based on the colour of your skin. Now. For me, essentially,
that's racism, at it's basic level, isn't it. You're you're judging someone and their
experiences based on the colour of your skin. And I don't identify with those stories that
are told in those South Asian communities. I had a very different upbringing. Em, we
were very family orientatated. We were very close, you know. We we grew up in Whitechapel.
We had dogs. We, we lived above a shop, you know. So in some ways you could say it's a
typical existence, but fundamentally, we're human beings aren't we. We experience the
same thing that someone ten thousand miles away is facing at this very same moment who
does have a shop, who isn't the same colour of my skin, who has children who lives above
their shop, who find, whose probably an immigrant, you know. Their their constant, I just have
a human story. I don't have an ethnic story. I I find that hard to comprehend because,
by labeling, what we do is we stop are society from moving on. We we, we stop ourselves from
evolving. Em, em and that's what I love about London. It's a community. It's, when the 7/7
bombings happened, we as a community rallied together and it was, it was a magnificent
sight. I can't stop looking outside your window 'cause it's my city. It's the noises that
I love, and, so it reminds me, yeah. I don't think it is helpful.
So, do you think there's a kind of transnationalism that actually informs your identity.
Yeah, of course. You can't. I can't forget, I can't forget my heritage. I can't 'cause
it's part of me. It's part of who I am and it's part of what I've grown up in. There
there's that brilliant phrase isn't there, the coconut, which, yeah, I I think it does
describe me. I'm I'm I'm happy to say that. And it's something we talk we talk about in
the play at the moment. And I don't think there's anything wrong with being a coconut,
because actually, what you're open to, is cultures. What you're open to are stories
outside of your own community. Community, I use that in a very loose sense because what
community is for me it may something very different for someone else. Em...but my, my
Indian and African heritage has absolutely informed who I am and what I want to do and
I know a lot about my heritage. And what's upsetting is when people who are in South
Asian theatre tell me I don't know about my roots. And it's happened to me a few times
and I think it's brilliant in a sense because what you could be, realize is, these people
have a very simplistic view of what it is to be Asian. They go based on the colour of
their skin and what the stereotypes are, and actually, they are not those people that are
branching out into the world. I went to Namibia for like three weeks and I felt just at home
there because, it, it is a magnificent place. It's vast lands of roaming animals and these
kind of, these really beautiful tribes which still exist and these beautiful, this beautiful
history, em, of the Germans you know, coming in and they still speak German in Namibia
and the four clicks which you have to learn for the language. They still have the same
universal problems that I have. And...I think that's what I find really difficult. I find
that really difficult that first and foremost, what I'm branded with is the colour of my
skin and not the fact that I can, it's this, I know this is going to sound really, I try
not to swear, er, this is going to sound really pathetic in a sense, but I', really heavily
influenced by Shakespeare, especially at the moment, and there's a brilliant monologue
by Shylock in Merchant of Venice. 'If you prick me, do I not bleed?' And, it's true
isn't it. The same problem has been occurring for six hundred, a thousand , two thousand,
ten thousand years, And as human beings, we still not have, we still haven't learnt the
fact that we're causing the same problem and not moving on. 'If you prick me, do I not
bleed?' Hell yeah, I'm going to bleed 'cause I'm a human being as much as you are, do you
know what I mean? We bleed the same colour. I find it really odd. I find it really odd
that we are still living in a society where we are still trying to pigeon hole each other
and it's, it's depressing and which is why, I think, in a sense, I've stopped caring about
it. When I was younger, I was really angry about it. And the older I get, I quickly realized
that, the people I want to be like aren't Asian, in the South Asian community, there
there's maybe one or two who I admire, but in what we know as British theatre, not white
theatre, British theatre, the likes of Paul Hunter, Hayley Carmichael, em, the theatre
companies like Improbable, like Complicite, the people like Madani Younis who are trying
to be more than just, they just want to be artists. They just want to, they want to work,
and they want to do good work, and they, solid work. They they work on a very simple foundation,
that we will try and produce the best things. And I guarantee you, if you go and see one
of their shows and you've never been to the theatre before, you'll want to go again. Whereas,
if you go and see bad theatre, and I'm not saying South Asian theatre is bad. I'm saying
any type of theatre, If you see a bad production, you'll not wanna go to the theatre again.
Period. Because your first influence is, well your first impressions are they last. And
that's what I love about them. So all this, your thoughts and philosophies,
what kind of audiences would you like to communicate these too because, obviously, you are a communicator.
Yeah. Em... you are a communicator. That wasn't very good communication was it. I I don't
believe that there's, that there is a type of audience, personally. I think the work
that I hopefully do and want to do and the productions I want to be a part of. Is open
for anyone. I like to think the story that I will tell the company of actors that I work
with, would be universal. It won't matter whether I'm Asian or, or any other...colour.
What matters is the stories that we tell are universal and you can identify with the person
on stage. Not because of the colour of their skin but because of the words that are coming
out of their mouths. That the emotions that that individual is going through, the journey
that they are going through in in front of your eyes. And that's what theatre is for
me. It's taking an audience on a journey. On spectacular journey, whether they laugh
or cry or walk out. You were saying to me earlier that you write
your own stuff which you perform for yourself only. So...
I don't perform it. Oh, you don't perform it.
I don't write my own stuff and then sit at home in front of the mirror, ah, that's very
good. No, yah. So how important is an audience to you.
I think audiences are very important. Em, fundamentally, if if if we just break down
what an audience does, fundamentally, an audience will pay my wage. That's the very basic. There's
no point lying about that, because, let's face it, theatre wouldn't exist in this country
if we didn't have audiences. We need an audience to watch. Er, those are two very basic things,
for three, for theatre to be created, you just need an audience there. You don't need
to be paid. But if you want to eat, sleep and keep warm, then you are hoping for some
payment. I'm, I could be wrong, er, and for anyone that disagrees and just wants to do
it for free go ahead. When you are freezing, I'll take you in, but ultimately, we, it's
our job isn't it. We've chosen a profession and we want to be paid 'cause we are passionate
about what we do. And I want to eat, because I like to eat, do you know what I mean? Em...
But your audience, if it isn't for them, who is it for? You, you know, you said that I
write my own stuff and I perform it myself, I don't perform it, but what that does is,
give me an idea of where I am in my life and it gives me an idea, so it's like a diary
almost. And I create characters and things that I may use in other productions. Em and
it just helps your mind to tick over. And, there's something very, writing for me is
is more about my own personal, er, thoughts. It's not about wanting to share it. If I wanted
to write something to share with people I would do it. But this, I kind of use it more
as my own diary. Em, I always write in the third person. Em, and I've written two one
man shows which one was done in Edinburgh. But it was very dark and it was it was about
a cannibal. Now, I can't imagine approaching a South Asian theatre company and and saying,
I have a one man show about a cannibal. Do you fancy putting it on? 'Cause the truth
is, I don't think they would take me seriously. It's not the kind of thing I think they want
to see. Er, whereas, I think if I approach someone like Madani and people like that,
they, there's a chance that he would, well, I mean he has in the past given me a week's
research and development, which we did in Bradford, and, work then got busy so I couldn't
go back to it. But I's about engaging our audiences because sometimes it feels like
we've got a set audience, but what we are not thinking about is the audience of the
future. The audience that are going to be going to a theatre in ten years time, and
how do we access them. Do we start at a younger age? Do we start influencing audiences, do
we start taking work into schools, and then what type of work do we take into schools.
And then you ask the question of, who is the cast? Who, what are the colours that we are
gonna put into this palette and rep, to present our work. Because we need to see those, those
representations. We need to see a cacophony of colours. Like we do in London. Like we
do in Manchester. Like we do in Liverpool, in Birmingham. Like we do across the world.
It's not just one colour that we live with, is it. It's a range.
So would you say the older notion of South Asian identity is evolving into South Asian
non-identity. No. I think it's a difficult one, because
what my parents went through, I will never have to go through. The opportunities that
my parents had, er, I will never have to go through because they gave me different opportunities.
The racism that they faced, I di face racism, but not to the extent of my parents' generation
and my grandparents' generation and, my great great grandparents' generation. What we have
to remember is we are an involving society. We constantly are evolving. But if we are
not evolving in what we show in, if we are not telling the stories of the community,
then surely we're, we're just staying in one place. Which is safe. Yah. I suppose that's
the thing. We are staying in a safe place. We are not challenging our audiences. What
are we doing? We are just presenting safe work. And I don't think I want to be part
of just safe work. I think I want to be challenged as a performer. I don't wanna be rich or famous
I wanna be damn good at what I do. And the only way I can do that is by working with
people that are gonna help me improve and that are going to challenge me as a performer
and that will ask me questions that I can ask back. And I don't, for me that's not really
available in South Asian work. Er it's interesting because we are coming
part of, more and more a part of a shared community. And so, therefore, for me, South
Asian is almost redundant in a shared community environment.
OK. So how do we, how do you...I mean, personally
I think you get a lot of pressures from outside more than from within. And these pressure
from outside actually can have a very negative effect. It's up to you to find a positive
out of that. So I'd be quite interested to see, to hear how, you actually find the positive.
Em, I think I found it by just not caring anymore. Em, if I'm honest, em, I did a play
which I'm not going to tell you which one, em, which made be realize that I have a choice
in the work that I do, When a good production comes up and I get an audition for it, I will
try my hardest regardless of whether it's a South Asian play or not. If it's a good
project, I think I wanna try and be apart of it if I can. Em, it's essentially, when
I look to those people like Paul Hunter, and I'll I'll always come back to Paul Hunter
and Hayley Carmichael, because when I look at them I go, every bit of work that they
do they put their heart and soul into it and what they want to do is essentially is make
the best work that they could possibly make. And isn't that a brilliant philosophy to live
by. I just wanna make good work. I don't I just want to make good work. I want to be
pushed to my limits as a performer. I want to be challenged by the people I work with.
I want to know that the stories we are telling are universal. I want to know that the people
that come to see the show are a representation of the society that I live in. Em, it's really
simple when you are not angry about something, because I think when you are angry, like I
used to be growing up, when I was a young performer, still am young, er (laughs) when
I was younger performer, em, you become very bitter about theatre and what it is and you
begin to loath what you do and I'm tired of, I'm tired. I'm really tired of it. I simply
want to look up to those people that I look up to, and do the best work that I can do
and not have to feel embarrassed when I go on stage. And whether you like it or not,
that, that's my choice. You can't tell me what to do. You can't tell me the type of
work I want to do. Because I'm influenced in different ways. So it goes back to your
thing of, is South Asian theatre community redundant. Well is, is any community redundant,
because they still have a voice, and they still want to share something they want to
do. And that's fine. Just don't tell me I don't know my roots and don't tell me that
I don't know where I come from. And don't tell me that the work I do makes me a coconut
because the work that I do I'm very proud of. I am very proud to be influenced by the
people that I'm influenced by. I'm very proud of my CV. 'Cause I've worked hard for it.
I've worked so damn hard for what I've done, and I refuse to be pinned down to a colour
or a community. I know I know where I'm from. And I know what, where I exist in this cycle.
We're going to die one day, so, I'm enjoying my life for what it is I'm not bogged down
anymore by those questions We live in a multicultural society where people can be what they want
and who they want. So. I don't think it is redundant. I don't think any community is
redundant. Because every community has a voice, and I think that's what I forgot when I was
younger and I think it's what you learn when you get older. And when you are influenced
by other people. That work is readily available to those people that like it. My question
is, are you, are you communicating to that audience that you're wanting to reach. If
we are specifically talking about South Asian audiences. Are you reaching the audience that
you think you want to reach? And, what type of stories are you telling? Em, are you doing,
are you challenging your audiences are you offering them a new concepts? Are you helping
the young performers who want to go to that area of work? Young writers? Young directors?
Excuse me, because, at the moment there seems to be a stalemate where where you still have
the same directors for the last ten, fifteen, twenty years, doing the same, similar sort
of work. It would be interesting if they mentored younger directors that want to go into that
sort of work, who may be actually, rather than tap into a South Asian community, maybe
tap into the British South Asian community, which is very different. The plays that my
parents watch are not the plays that I watch. We're, we're are generation apart. Now, the
problem occurs, when, this generation, my parents' generation die out, because they
will die out, there will be a time when they have to pass this world, as I will. Now, if
there is not an audience to follow them, if there isn't an audience to watch that work,
then where is the theatre? What does it become? And does it then become time, does it then
become time to evolve? Or, is it time to evolve now? Because those people that are making
those bits of theatre, who, like me, started with the right intentions of wanting to maybe
change things in theatre or wanting to voice an opinion, we can't forget the founding work
that they've done the very foundation of what they played, laid down for the likes of myself
to become an Asian actor, I hate using that term, but it's, it's what I'm known as isn't
it, in the business that we're in. I'll always be known as an Asian actor. But that's up
to people to decide. I'm a human being. But my question still remains. When that generation
dies out, and you haven't got that younger audience coming in, because, they can't really
identify with what's going on twenty years ago, then what happens to South Asian theatre?
What des it become? Will you then decide then, in ten years time, when those audiences begin
to filter away that it's now time to tap into a younger audience where you start doing panic
stuff, where you haven't thought about the things you're gonna do, you just put on a
production that may bring in a younger crowd? It's is an interesting question I think, and
it's a question I'd like to ask those people. It's a questions I'd like to ask the, the
Arts Council because, let's face it, the Arts Council have a choice on who they fund. They,
they are essentially the government to the theatre. And sometimes what happens is it's
very much like a, like our government. The government will come in. They don't have a
clue about the communities and the societies that they are working for, representing, but
what they do have is an old concept. I'm not saying it's outdated at all, because there
are those generations of people that still believe in that concept. But what happens
when the young try to voice an opinion. Like the riots across England. What simply happens
is we are shut down, very quickly. Without a voice and you're told that you are a troublemaker.
Which is what I experienced I think. I was very much seen as a troublemaker. It wasn't
that I was causing trouble. I was just simply asking the questions of my peers, and of the
people I was meant to look up to, who couldn't answer me those questions. So you move on
to other people, don't you. You start looking to other people to look up to and I found
those people. And you know the answers, by making good theatre. With a very human, basic
human story. Like Shakespeare, which is universal. Which doesn't matter what colour you are.
I was going to say well, apart from Othello, because, apparently that's a, you know, 'cause
I am sure someone would have picked that out and gone, well actually, er...Shakespeare's
universal. And that changed my opinion. When I worked for the Shakespeare company, they,
Alison Bomber, who is another influence in my life, she was a voice teacher who I met,
and I never went to drama school, so she taught me so much, but what she absolutely taught
me was, it doesn't matter about the colour of your skin. What it matters is, because
I always had a problem with it. What it matters is you are telling a very human story. And
what you are doing is you're engaging with the community of audience, of audiences. We
would take productions to school where it would be a vast range of colours 'cause I
know colour's a big thing in theatres at the moment. And what you, what we did do was we
engaged with young people at a younger age, with a multicultural company, who are, whether
whether you like it or not, who are the future audiences that will pay to go to a theatre,
because let's face it, if you want to do free theatre, that's fine. I hate this notion that
we should do something for free because, we work so hard, you know, and we work, we work
long hours. We put our hearts and souls into something. And why shouldn't shouldn't you
get something back from that. I think I'm trying to, I sound like I'm defending myself,
but I am. I am defending myself, But it's the younger audiences we need to engage with
and if you are just engaging with a colour, when that colour disappears, which slowly
it is, because I know a lot of Asian people with partners that are not Asian, so their
children are not going to be the colour of my skin. Those audiences are disappearing
and very quickly what happens, what happens when those audiences no longer remain, and
what happens when they become tired of stories that were told twenty years ago, what we can't
forget is the founding fathers of what we know is South Asian theatre. And I never thought
I'd say this, but it's true. They did so much for us. But like every government, you have
to ask the question how, like every company, every corporate company, we've now, we are
now in the market. How do we evolve. How do we become better than we were teo years ago,
five years ago, ten years ago. And the idea of concept as well is, for me, the reason
South Asian theatre doesn't work is, whenever a classic play is done, we do a classic thing
of setting it in the classic land of Asia. There's there's there's no... So what we do
is we, we give vibrant colours to a stage and we put a statue of Kali and we have these
cod Asian accents 'cause let's face it, if you heard my Asian accent, you would think
I was an idiot. It's not that bad, but, but you know, they are cod because friends from
India do come over, and when I hear their accent, they're so crisp and they're so different.
And you look at India now, I'm just using this as an example, as a society, and the
last, let's say the last year alone. How much it has evolved in terms of women's rights,
in terms of, em, the *** cases that have now come...become huge in the media, the fact
that those men will be hung. A year ago that would never have happened. India is growing
at such a rate, we can't keep up with it. It is. And it's becoming a well developed
country. What we do in Britain is we still think it is, stuck in the Raj. And isn't it
funny that we are known as the more developed race, in Britain. We've developed more than
the third world countries. We know so much more. Yet that country is developing at a
rate that we cannot keep up with. And our, our theatre doesn't communicate that anymore.
But then you, I suppose then you have to ask the question of, are the audiences ready for
it. Because em, you look at the play that was done in Birmingham about the, the women
that were *** in the Gurdwaras and the community came out and they were they were in uproar,
and they had to stop the production. That was ten years ago. What happens now if we
did the same production. Are we ready for it as an audience. And I think the answer
is yes. Because of what's happened in India. It will be interesting to see what, if that
play was brought back, what the reactions would be. Are the men still afraid of...telling
the rest of the world what's going on in those places, and are the women brave enough to
stand up, or, well they are 'cause India's showing it. Women in millions are coming out
and marching and demonstrating and, they are becoming powerful figures. My question is,
does South Asian theatre represent that in today's theatre. It's a question. I don't
know the answer. Em, it may do. It may not. But it's an interesting question.
Thank you, for ending with a question like that.
No, not at all. I feel I spoke a lot. You have.