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Practitioner focus: Tamasha theatre

Exploring the work of respected South Asian-led theatre company Tamasha, Beccy Thompson sets out some exercises that you can use with your students to unpack some of the group's teachings.
All images: Tamasha Theatre's production of Wuthering Heights, 2009 © ALL IMAGES: COURTESY TAMASHA

Tamasha is a world-leading theatre company born from a mission ‘to bring contemporary work of South Asian influence to the British stage’. They stage stories that, in their words, ‘celebrate the world in which we live’. Currently under the artistic direction of Pooja Ghai, the group was founded in 1989 by director Kristine Landon-Smith and actor/writer Sudha Bhuchar. Expanding their early focus, the company now champion artists from across the Global Majority.

Tamasha's early productions adapted novels by Indian authors, spotlighting stories about marginalised people and complexities within Asian culture. In 1996 their production of East is East (with the Birmingham Rep and Royal Court) toured, had a West End run and was subsequently turned in a much-loved film.

Based in Camden, Tamasha does not produce in-house productions, rather they work alongside other organisations. They have adapted performances for the BBC, worked with schools and with theatres such as the Lyric Hammersmith. Tamasha has won both Eastern Eye's ACTA and Media awards. They support emerging artists of colour through a regular programme of events and have recently set up Tamasha digital, which includes audio dramas and podcasts, promoting their values of collaboration, justice, empowerment and transformation.

Themes

Themes explored in Tamasha's productions are diverse, tackling issues such as identity, migration, social justice and mental health. For instance, a current co-production with the Bush Theatre, Wolves on Road by Beru Tessema, explores hope and ambition through a ‘deep dive into the mysterious world of cryptocurrency’.

Influences and style

Tamasha's productions draw on a wide range of cultural influences, blended with humour and naturalistic storytelling. Founding member Landon-Smith (2020) does not prioritise characteristics of one culture, rather ‘perspectives found in any contemporary urban metropolis’ (p.344) citing practitioner Philippe Gaulier as an influence. Taking Gaulier's emphasis on playing, Landon-Smith (2020) suggests, supports actors to perform ‘laden with their own cultural contexts, perspectives and unique richness’ (p.345) and prevents them being restricted by the principles of Western praxis. The exercises that follow are designed to support pupils in school bring aspects of themselves when making drama.

Exercises:

Games

Landon-Smith has stressed that games are a good way to break down inhibitions that students might feel about bringing aspects of their own culture to making work. For instance, ‘Keepie Uppie’ – where a group keeps a light ball up in the air with as many hits between each other as possible – is good for building a sense of unity within the group as well as encouraging a playful attitude that could be translated into making a performance.

This is my…

To create a space for pupils to have equitable access to creating drama, in the spirit of Tamasha's work, it is important all have the chance to contribute something about their own background.

Ask everyone to bring in an artefact (or a picture of it) from home that is meaningful to them. Everyone will walk around the room with their artefact and on your signal find a partner. They will all follow this script:

A: I would like to give you my … It is important to me because… (A gives B their artefact)

B: Thank you. I would like to give you my … It is important to me because… (B gives A their artefact).

Then the process and exchange of artefacts repeats by everyone re-circulating the room, but this time when they stop the script changes a little…

A (then B): I would like to give you NAME's object/picture. It is important to them because…

Repeat the process as much as works for your class. Bring everyone back to a circle and ask each pupil in turn to give back the artefact to its original owner, explaining why it is important; the changes that will most likely surface could lead to insightful discussions about how myths and stories develop or could be the starting point for devising.

L1

In Tamasha's inaugural production, Untouchable, they performed alternatively in Hindi and English; literally speaking to audiences from a broad range of backgrounds. Landon-Smith has made the salient point that if students do not get to use their own vernacular regularly, they are disadvantaged as it encompasses their history and understanding of the world. Theory on language acquisition, relevant to multilingual learners in school, also promotes use of their first language (L1) for second language development. Giving pupils opportunities to practice L1 could be beneficial in several ways, not least for enriching performances. For example, if setting a monologue task, invite pupils to write and perform in their first language. This promotes playful discovery in creating characters, removing barriers acquiring an additional language might present in physicalising a role. If there is an assessment demand to perform in English, once rehearsed, translate the text, but encourage the performer to retain qualities of voice and movement they discovered earlier.

http://tamasha.org.uk

Landon-Smith, K. (2020) ‘A pedagogy for twenty-first century actor training: intracultural theatre practice which embraces pluralistic identity and plays with difference,’ Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 11:3, 343-350 (available via ResearchGate).