Suba Das Directs

Conferences are a little like buses, and over the past week I was invited to participate in not one, but two, major events exploring the history, and future, of diversity as a part of our theatremaking language in the UK.

On Sunday at the V&A, the BBA Shakespeare Project at Warwick University curated a full day of conversations around diversity in Shakespeare, tying in with the V&A’s own Shakespeare 450 celebrations. Speakers included the fabulous, inspirational Rakie Ayola, Hugh Quarshie, Iqbal Khan, Tim Supple and many more. Twitter Storify here capturing some of the thoughts and ideas shared during a challenging, but hopefully ultimately optimistic day.

On Monday, at SOAS, University of London, I was a panellist at the official launch of their British Asian Theatre Archive, speaking alongside figures such as Madani Younis, Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre, and the writer and activist Suman Bhuchar. It’s quite an honour to be one of 32 people representing the journey of South Asian theatremakers in the UK over the past 40 years, and hopefully I’m part of the journey onwards and forwards. As part of the Archive, I was asked to give an uncut interview last year, outlining the story of my career to date. It’s rather long, but if anyone ever wanted a clear account of how I come to be doing what I do, and why, it’s a pretty good summary.

  I’m delighted to be feverishly at work on the UK premieres of two award-winning new plays from India, which will be staged at Curve later this year as part of a major celebration of local talent, supported by the Royal Court and the British Council. Pereira’s Bakery at 76 Chapel Road by Ayeesha Menon and OK Tata Bye Bye by Purva Naresh, are two extraordinary new plays charting life in 21st Century India from urban and rural perspectives. Addressing issues as varied as business corruption and female emancipation, the plays together offer an often hilariously funny, quite frank contemplation of the complexity and diversity of modern life within India itself, and play quite provocatively with some of the cliches and stereotypes sometimes associated with Indian characters onstage.

Happy New Year one and all! With the generous support of Arts Council England, the National Centre for Circus Arts, Warwick University, the Broadway Theatre Barking and the Kevin Spacey Foundation, I have embarked on an R&D process looking at restaging my 2011 site-specific production of Othello as a touring production.

I’m thrilled to be collaborating with Parkour specialist Louis Gift, winner of the 2013 Circus Maximus Award  and part of the Barely Methodical Circus Troupe on the project, which will fuse the 90-minute edit we created for the original production with a heightened, death-defying physical vocabulary conveying the militarism and muscularity of the world of the play, alongside the manipulations and contortions of Iago. Watch this space for more info as the project develops.

Greetings from Derry-Londonderry!

As you may know, Leicester has been shortlisted down to the final four cities (alongside Dundee, Hull and Swansea Bay)  for the second ever UK City of Culture title. The winning city will curate and create a year of major cultural activity in 2017.

It’s my absolute honour, privilege, and slight terror to have been invited by the Steering Committee for Leicester’s bid (entitled “Illuminating Culture”) to serve as Director for the final presentation, which will be made today before a panel of international cultural leaders. We’re in the current City of Culture, Derry, to make the final presentations and witnessing first hand the inspiration, pride and energy that is galvanised through the the title.

I’ve been working closely over the past few weeks with the Bid Team to help craft a presentation that presents the bid intimately and personally through the voices and perspectives of six people who best represent culture for Leicester, ranging from our City Mayor, through to the creator of the Leicester Comedy Festival and my own Chief Executive at Curve.

Whatever the verdict, the process has harnessed so much creativity and passion across the city already, and has set in motion some quite brilliant plans that will happen regardless… Watch this space.

UPDATE: Sadly, Leicester was pipped to the post for the UK City of Culture 2017 title. Congratulations to the Hull team on their victory, and the exciting plans they have created for a city that stands to gain enormously from the investment and profile of the award. Personally, I’m honoured that the official feedback from the judging panel commented that the quality of the presentation by the Leicester team team added “credibility and really brought aspects of the bid to life”, and I’m excited about the plans that will shortly be announced for a citywide programme of cultural celebration inspired by the positivity of the campaign so far.

I’m thrilled (well that’s an understatement right there) to be able to reveal that this summer I’ll be directing the world premiere of HOPE LIGHT AND NOWHERE, the second play by Andrew Sheridan. Andrew won the Bruntwood Prize for his first play, Winterlong, produced by the Royal Exchange and Soho Theatre in 2011.

The show has won the Ideastap Underbelly Award, and opens as a flagship production at the Underbelly as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In the words of none other than Simon Stephens, it’s a ‘savage poem of a play… [by]… the most exciting new writer to appear in British Theatre in the past five years’.

It’s an honour to be trusted with a truly incredible play, and I’ve pulled together a damn exciting creative team comprising my recent Young Vic collaborator Jean Chan, who will join us in rehearsals after she completes her first show for Complicite, Lionboy (Bristol Old Vic and touring, co-designed with Jon Bausor); composer Patrick Gleeson (composer for last year’s Edinburgh smash hit A Clockwork Orange); and lighting designer Richard Howell, winner of this year’s Lighting Design Off West End Award.

More details are at www.hopelightnowhere.co.uk. Hope to see you in Edinburgh….