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his play is the result of a quest that began for me many years ago when I ‘discovered’ Annie Besant at a bookshop in the form of a slim volume by Rosemary Dinnage. I was captivated by the woman whose face was on the cover, serious, intense, determined. She was an admirable figure in many respects, except there was a story here that troubled me. Without knowing more about it I felt unable to come to a judgement about Annie. The story I refer to (only a cameo in Dinnage) is her adoption of Krishnamurti and of his defection and later evolution as a thinker. I put the book aside, aware of the challenges involved in researching and interpreting two major figures of the last century and beyond! I was right; it was not easy. It has taken almost five years to research and write this duo. It would not have been possible for me to write Mistaken if I had not already written The Man who refused to be God (2002). That bought me the time to research and study Krishnamurti’s life and his philosophy; it was an important preliminary. When Vayu Naidu decided to commission a play about Annie Besant, I finally found the opportunity to begin to excavate a rich kaleidoscopic life that gleams with fervour and throbs with vitality, the life of a woman who is rare both in her altruism and her pursuit of truth. Her relationship with Krishnamurti, which was my central interest in the story had to be subsumed, however, by Vayu’s conception of it as a history play. Gandhi had to figure in it more clearly, and India. What was for me a fascinating personal story is now layered with history and politics in a way that I hope enriches the text. The Company’s focus on storytelling theatre was not new to me. I had used storytelling in an earlier work inspired by Vayu’s performance as a storyteller. I began with a determination to integrate the storyteller into the action hoping to moderate and control more effectively the distance resulting from the narrative voice. I am not a documentarist by nature — at times, the constraints that a ‘true’ historical play requires, have grated. In a sense, Sidra, a fictional character, my storyteller, is as real to me as all the historical figures in the play. My writing has been enriched through numerous discussions with Chris Banfield, and I feel fortunate that both he and Vayu saw this story’s potential for drama with its mix of race, power and religion.
ates are ruthlessly insignificant in themselves, except as a measure of linear time. A moment, however, can be suspended in time by individual memory, and then through story can become collective memory. History has attempted to tell the story of those moments that have changed lives. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the air held an intricate tapestry of movements, wars, revelations, discoveries and inventions marching ahead on the machinery of Empire. We start in the summer of 1916, in India. MISTAKEN… Annie Besant in India by Rukhsana Ahmad tells us the story of a woman of epic stature, not solely by information about her from public accounts. This play was born from a genuine interest in Annie Besant who reformed ways of thinking and working for women in factories in England, and her passionate belief in Home Rule and the renaissance in education that she founded in India. Through the play and the device of storytelling, the writer and director have enabled us to explore the psychological and sociological moments driving Annie Besant, Krishnamurti, and M. K. Gandhi that shaped a dominant arc of the subcontinent’s history. And, it is not in isolation. The enduring relationship between British and the Subcontinent’s cultures continue to evolve with diaspora. This play is also a diasporic expression of the impact of that colonial experience as a shared and collective memory. Ahmad through her documented metaphor of the adoption in this play, subtly unravels the inextricable ties between the coloniser and colonised, not necessarily defined by ethnicity, and the final price of freedom. Chris Banfield has dextrously woven archival material with his intercultural methods as Director for this production. In commissioning and producing this play, I am privileged in working with a creative team whose origins from Pakistan, Britain, and India pool together in remembering a hero who was airbrushed from history while shaping a legacy that makes for a multidimensional society in the here and the now. What better occasion to celebrate 60 years of Independence by stretching theatre conventions and creating new heritages! We are delighted that the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre has chosen to work with us on this production, and warmly acknowledge their support in making this production possible. Dr Vayu Naidu
Rukhsana Ahmad
‘…the knowledge that we create our own character, that we have made our own strength or our own weakness, that we are not the sport of an arbitrary God or of a soulless Destiny, but are verily and indeed the creators of ourselves and of our lot in life — this knowledge comes to us as a support and an inspiration, giving energy to improve and courage to endure.’ Annie Besant
Annie Besant: A Beacon of the Theosophical Society
which says “there is no higher religion than truth.” A voracious reader, Mrs Besant was attracted to Theosophy and was so influenced by Madame by Sabita Radhakrishnan (Theosophical Society, India) Blavatsky’s Divine Doctrine, that she went on to My husband’s family home was in Besant Avenue become a prominent theosophist. A Christian first, and my first introduction to Chennai (then then an atheist, Annie Besant later adopted Madras) was through the Theosophical Hinduism as her religion and believed that Society, just a stroll away from our she was an Indian in her previous birth. Annie Besant chose to settle home. Lingering at Ranga Vilas we lapped up stories about down in Benares which was my husband’s grandfather, the hub of education and or Thatha, a staunch religiosity those days. She theosophist whose home channeled her unbridled it was, for as long as he energy into raising funds was alive. A kaleidoscope to establish a number of images flitted by, of of schools and colleges, Ranganatha Mudaliar the most important of with the historic greats which was the Central of Adyar who in many Hindu College High ways altered the course School at Benaras which of history. One of the she started in 1913. It was greats was Annie Besant the base from which who influenced Thatha Benaras Hindu University into giving his daughter grew under the leadership Clockwise from left: in marriage to an erudite of Madan Mohan Malaviya. Annie, Charles Leadbetter, Krishna and Punjabi gentleman in that The Benaras Hindu University C. Jinarajadas era of tight orthodoxy. We conferred on Annie Besant the would often walk to the Garden of honorary degree of D.L. Dr Besant was a prolific writer, and Remembrance drinking in the sweet fragrance of fresh flowers in the hallowed one of her famous writings was the sanata spot which encases part of the mortal remains of dharma touching on the doctrines of Hinduism. She a colossus… Annie Besant, who touched the lives translated the Bhagvad Gita into English and taught of everyone who worked with her. Her interest both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata… Her in politics and her views on India’s struggle for radiant charisma and indefatigable spirit attracted independence predated her arrival in India and she businessmen, pundits, teachers around her. She wrote about India and Afghanistan as early as 1879. continued to work hard setting up schools and Madame H. P. Blavatsky, a Russian aristocrat and colleges in different parts of India. Colonel Henry S. Olcott, an American Civil War When Mr H. S. Olcott was on his way to India, he veteran founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 met with a serious accident, and nominated Annie which at the time was considered a prototype Besant as his successor. She was elected President of of combined New Age philosophies. Theosophy the Theosophical Society in 1907, which office she culls the core of various religious beliefs and a faith held for the rest of her life. Mrs Besant presented
a new perspective to Theosophy. She melded it with practicality and persuaded the members to apply this to every field whether religious, social, economic or political and to shed religious dogmas which were stifling. To this purpose she instituted the Theosophical Order of Service, and the Sons of India in 1908 for the relief of suffering, an Order whose precepts continues to infiltrate to the rest of the world. The motto which she chose for the Order was: ‘A union of those who love in the service of all that suffers.’ Dr Besant travelled and lectured extensively, and being a powerful orator her ideologies were swiftly disseminated. The right to freedom was an underlying factor in whatever Dr Besant worked for in her life and she plunged headlong into political activities. She believed that one path to gain freedom for India was to pressurize Parliament politically and she began by starting a journal called ‘New India’ and founded the Home Rule League in 1916. In 1917 she was imprisoned in Ootacamund because of her belligerent writing. The Vice-President of the Theosophical Society, Subramania Iyer requested President Wilson of the United States to intercede with the British Government to release her. Shortly after she was freed, she was elected President of the Indian National Congress. She toured Britain and used her considerable oratorical powers extensively influencing British opinion on existing Indian conditions. Annie believed that India was supported by a strong spiritual base and that Lord Krishna would return as promised in the Gita vanquishing evil and restoring righteousness. She took a young Teleguspeaking boy, 14-year-old Krishnamurti, under her wing, whom she groomed and sent to England for a broad-based education, befitting a future world class leader, believing he would in time turn out a sort of messiah. This affection for the young Krishnamurti somehow marred her reputation as a leading theosophist. As it turned out much later, Jiddu Krishnamurti could not accept the esoteric part of Theosophy and broke away forming his own society. Dr Besant did not see satyagraha as the most effective means for achieving the objectives both she and Gandhiji desired. Tragically, from 1925 onwards her life seemed to be plummeting into a well of
disappointment and trauma. Gandhiji’s philosophy of satyagraha was accepted by the majority of Indians, and Annie Besant’s vision was sidelined. She had no support from either Motilal or Jawaharlal Nehru. Everything she had stood for, the edifice she had built through sheer determination and hard work, hoping to hand over this legacy to future generations appeared to be threatened, making her sadly disillusioned. The campaign of Mahatma Gandhi gained momentum in the early 1930s, but Annie Besant was not part of it. On 20 September 1933, this stalwart of a woman passed on. A great woman, she came to India like a gentle breeze which developed intensity, storming the corridors of passivity in so many fields, giving her sweat and blood to a country she loved and adopted. She should be venerated as a great soul, and a true daughter of India. Perhaps the most beautiful tribute came from Sarojini Naidu, “Mrs Annie Besant was a great woman, a warrior, a patriot and a priestess. Many creeds were reconciled in her. Her essential qualities were her unquenchable thirst for freedom”. The Theosophical Society still seems to be insulated against dramatic changes over the turn of the century, and seventy-five years after Dr Annie Besant I may be right in assuming that most of the ideals are still upheld today by staunch theosophists. The membership however does not boast of a large percentage of young people which is essentially required to spread the message of theosophy. Outwardly the TS space is the same; the estate is still beautiful even if it is overgrown. Environment activists among the walkers try their best to clean the riverside bank, and divest the private beach of any accumulated rubbish. Many old trees have fallen, but in their place there are countless new ones. The birds, hundreds of them, chirp merrily, and one spots the odd mongoose, wild boar or a slithering snake. TS has become a walkers’ paradise and by dawn 35 cars are parked at the entrance and they vanish by seven in accordance with the rules. One is glad of these rules, for the silence, the stillness and the tranquillity of Nature cannot be experienced anywhere else but in the estate of the Theosophical Society. It is still the most hallowed spot in Chennai that was once Madras.
Amma and the Mahatma: a partnership that failed
With her Irish background Annie Besant was always going to be emotionally drawn to nationalism and from the start, her involvement with Theosophy was inextricably linked to the cause of Indian freedom. But Annie Besant had signed up to the self-denying ordinance of the Theosophical Society under Colonel Olcott to keep out of politics and wisely so, for these religious reform movements were always at risk of serious reprisal and possible closure by a colonial state were they to do so. From her arrival in India in 1893 till Olcott’s death in 1909 — this she believed freed her from her vow— she reluctantly kept out of politics. There was always to be a kind of fanciful waywardness to Mrs Besant’s politics, with her at this point both causing a real stir by accusing the Raj of racism, whilst also revealing strong royalist tendencies. She joined the Indian National Congress in 1913. Just as Gandhi had done in South Africa, she soon displayed real flair as a journalist and through New India took up the cause of constitutional reform, seen in her eyes as shamefully delayed by the Raj on grounds of the war. She courted both wings of the Congress party, the Moderate constitutional wing under Gokhale (1866–1915) and the Extremist radical nationalist under Tilak (1856–1920), and she seriously supposed she could take over its leadership from Gokhale on his premature death in 1915. Tilak then stole her idea and set up a Home Rule league in April 1916 but this was quickly followed in September by Mrs Besant’s. When the Raj sent her to internal exile at Ooty it merely turned the then 70 year old Mrs Besant into a martyr and on her release she was triumphantly elected President of the Congress in 1917. But that was as far as she was to go. Congress resented her attempt at authoritarian leadership. She tried to extend the Presidency beyond the Calcutta Congress but in the end was forced to resign. By 1917 with the Montagu Declaration of 20 August of an India moving toward self government a fraught debate opened up within Congress of cooperation with such constitutional reform and non-cooperation, and then the whole climate of the imperial relationship was radically altered by the massacre at Amritsar, 13th April 1919. Mrs Besant was always for all her emotional language a natural constitutionalist — she held out for some rosy-eyed vision of a free India in a
by Anthony Copley The encounter between two such world-historical figures as Annie Besant (1847–1933) and Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948) is one of the more tantalising within the Indian freedom struggle. They were curiously alike. Both were chameleon personalities; Annie Besant with several incarnations within her lifetime, mother of two and divorced wife of an Anglican vicar, champion of birth control and feminist, free thinker and atheist, socialist and TU militant, and, at the last, Theosophist and Indian nationalist: Gandhi, resolving a profound conflict of cultural identity, all the way from the Saville Row dressed, highly Anglicised Durban lawyer to the dhoti-wearing itinerating sanyasin, the politiciansaint. Both were religious pluralists, Gandhi almost certainly acquiring his belief that all religions led to the Divine, the basis of Indian secularism, from Theosophy. Both were driven by a pursuit of the truth, that search in Besant’s case for a connection between science and God that underlay all of her numerous causes, Gandhi’s search implicit in the title of his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Mrs Besant was to become Amma, part Forster’s Mrs Moore, part Indian Goddess; Gandhi, Bapu, Father of the nation. In many ways their politics were convergent and yet there was to be a bitter parting of the ways. They had first met in London in the 1880s when Gandhi, a young and gauche law student, in desperate search of some cultural mooring, had partly found them in Theosophy; he read Madame Blavatsky’s Key to Theosophy, published 1889, stirring in Gandhi a renewed faith in his own religion. He was at the time struck by the ‘utter sincerity’ of Annie Besant, herself only recently a recruit to Theosophy — all agree she was a superb orator — and possibly Gandhi, 22 years her junior, saw her as a mother figure. Their next meeting was to be India in 1916, 6 February, following Pandit Malaviya’s invitation to Gandhi to make an inaugural speech at the opening of the Hindu Banaras University, very much Mrs Besant’s brainchild. Was it then that their relationship all went so horribly wrong?
strong relationship with a reformed Empire-dreaded anarchy and misguidedly approved police violence in controlling crowd disturbance in Delhi and Amritsar — hence the slogan against her of ‘bullets for brick bats’. She stormed out of Congress in 1920 when Gandhi’s resolution for non-cooperation was passed and if this was not the end of her political career-she tried to bring Liberals together in her National Convention 1923–25 and was appointed to the All-Parties Conference under Motilal Nehru in 1927 on a future constitution-politically she was a figure of the past. The Gandhi Mrs Besant met again in 1915 was a entirely different and far more formidable person. Following his extraordinary struggle on behalf of the Indian minority in South Africa he had returned a hero to India in January 1915. Mrs Besant had reported on his efforts in her newspapers. But he was somewhat out of touch with Indian politics and his political guru Gohkale advised him to take time out to re-familiarise himself. In many ways he shared Mrs Besant’s values. Gandhi likewise was more the constitutionalist. He believed in Queen Victoria’s promises to India, looked to the Colonial Office or the India Office to address the needs of its imperial subjects, and, indeed, remained a recruiting sergeant for the war effort throughout the war. It took the notorious Rowlatt acts with their gross ingratitude in still seeing Indians as a threat despite their heroic contribution to the war effort and even more Dyer’s atrocity to shake his faith in the bona fides of empire and make possible his commitment to non-violent civil disobedience, or satyagraha, against the Raj in 1920. But he had shared Mrs Besant’s appalled response to the violence that flowed from the Rowlatt satyagraha, branding it ‘a Himalayan blunder’, and recognised that Indians would need a far greater spiritual training in non-violent struggle for it to work. Even as late as 1928 they shared a preference for India as a dominion as against full independence. None of this explains why they fell apart. It was Pandit Malaviya (the model for Pandit Babu in Paul Scott’s The Raj Quartet), a leading Congress Moderate, who invited Gandhi to make the inaugural speech for the founding of the Hindu Banares University on 6 February 1916. But this was very much Mrs Besant’s creation in 1898 she had
set up the Central Hindu College in Banares. India’s future she believed lay with a new Hindu elite, steeped in their own culture but educated along western lines. Gandhi was not himself opposed to a Hindu education, indeed one of his main complaints against the university was its teaching in English rather than in Hindi. Even more disturbingly for Gandhi, Mrs Besant had always favoured a Brahminical Hinduism and her privileging of the high caste together with a highly elitist approach was in direct conflict with his belief in democracy, his critique of caste and his reaching out to the untouchables. To be fair to Mrs Besant, she did favour the Arya Samaj’s interpretation that caste should be based on merit rather than birth. And into all of this came Gandhi’s disastrous speech before a highly establishment audience, with both the Viceroy Lord Hardinge present and serried ranks of princes. Mrs Besant sat on the dais. First he attacked an education through the medium of English and praised the role of the vernaculars, then, even more tactlessly, deplored the wealth of the princes seen as rack-rented from the peasantry, and finally expressed his sympathy for anarchy if not of the Tilakite brand, at which point the meeting broke up in confusion. Clearly after such offence theirs could never thereafter be a trusting relationship. Should Mrs Besant have made a greater effort at empathy with Gandhi’ visionary politics? Not that their relationship ever wholly broke down, and he kept in touch with her till her death in September 1933. Mrs Besant had other preoccupations, nurturing as she did in Krishnamurti, the World teacher of the future. No wonder she supposed she had legitimate claims to leadership. Theirs had been a story of shared ideals but conflicting temperaments and ultimately was one of mutual disillusionment and some pathos. Antony Copley, Honorary Reader, University of Kent, Academic Advisor to the Gandhi Foundation and author of Gandhi: Against the Tide (Blackwell:1987 and OUP India:1993).
www.gandhifoundation.org
The Core of Krishnamurti’s Teaching The core of Krishnamurti’s teaching is contained in the statement he made in 1929 when he said: ‘Truth is a pathless land’. Man cannot come to it through any organisation, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection. Man has built in himself images as a fence of security — religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man’s thinking, his relationships and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind. The content of his consciousness is his entire existence. This content is common to all humanity. The individuality is the name, the form and superficial culture he acquires from tradition and environment. The uniqueness of man does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom from the content of his consciousness, which is common to all mankind. So he is not individual. Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not choice. It is man’s pretence that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward. Freedom is without motive;
freedom is not at the end of the evolution of man but lies in the first step of his existence. In observation one begins to discover the lack of freedom. Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and activity. Thought is time. Thought is born of experience and knowledge which are inseparable from time and the past. Time is the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past. Thought is ever limited and so we live in constant conflict and struggle. There is no psychological evolution. When man becomes aware of the movement of his own thoughts he will see the division between the thinker and the thought, the observer and the observed, the experiencer and the experience. He will discover that this division is an illusion. Then only is there pure observation which is insight without any shadow of the past or of time. This timeless insight brings about a deep radical mutation in the mind. Total negation is the essence of the positive. When there is negation of those things that thought has brought about psychologically, only then is there love, which is compassion and intelligence. This statement was originally written by Krishnamurti himself on October 21, 1980 for “Krishnamurti: The Years of Fulfilment” by Mary Lutyens, the second volume of his biography, published in 1983.
Storytelling • Theatre
Vayu Naidu Company in association with Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre presents
MISTAKEN…
Annie Besant In India by Rukhsana Ahmad
Cast
(in order of appearance)
Annie Besant Storyteller Sidra Gandhi/Judge Jessel/Man Narayaniah/Governor/Yogi Krishnamurti
Rosalind Stockwell Vayu Naidu Ruby Sahota Rohit Gokani Ranjit Krishnamma Narinder Samra
with Henry Besant as the Reverend Besant’s voice All other parts played by the company.
ACT 1
India, 1916
• Interval •
Running Time — approx. 2 hrs 25 mins (including interval) This production premiered at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on 25 April 2007. Mistaken… Annie Besant in India was commissioned by Vayu Naidu Company.
ACT 2
India, 1919
Creative Team Director
Chris Banfield Designer
Marsha Roddy Lighting Designer
Mark Dymock Production Manager
Kate Edwards Company Stage Manager
Sarah Buik
Krishna and Annie perform a ceremonial opening
Production Credits
Thanks to
• Tabla composition and recording by Sarvar Sabri
•
The Minister for Culture and the Nehru Centre
• Script translation into Telegu by Lesley Jacob at the Nehru Centre & Sashi, Hyderabad
• The Krishnamurti Foundation Trust (www.kfoundation.org)
Roshni Savjani
• Set construction by PMB Theatre & Exhibition Services Ltd.
• The Gandhi Foundation (www.gandhifoundation.org)
Technical Stage Manager
• Projector hire & consultancy: Philip Stannard Associates
• The Theosophical Society in India
Deputy Stage Manager
Garry Hoare Assistant Stage Manager (student placement)
Jenny Southall Wardrobe Supervisor
• Miss Stockwell’s Wig by Wig Specialities, London • Photographs of Krishnamurti courtesy of Krishnamurti Foundation Trust • Photograph of Annie Besant and Gandhi (poster and cover image) courtesy of Peter Ruhe/ GandhiServe Foundation
Aparna Bangia
• Tour Press & PR & London publicity: Chloe Faine (press) and Guy Chapman at Target Live
Costume Maker
• Audience Development: Hardish Virk of MultiArts Nation
Martina Trottman Production Photography
Robert Day
• Publicity designed by Cog Design • Programme design by Duncan Designs
• David Baker at Kingsley Hall, Bow: home of the Gandhi Foundation’s office (www.kingsleyhall.freeuk.com) • Prof. Anthony Copley • Henry Besant, the great great grandson of Annie Besant • Nikki Bedi, broadcaster with the BBC Asian Network • Dr Darryll Grantley • Dr Andrew Pitcairn-Hill • Mrinalini and Suresh Ramakrishnan • GSA Conservatoire • Ronson Lighters • Amaryllis Campbell
A Chronology of Annie Besant’s Early Life Birth of Annie Wood (London) Annie’s aunt Ellen Maryat invites her to live with her. Annie gains a decent education and returns home eight years later Annie marries Frank Besant, a clergyman Her son Digby is born Gives birth to daughter, Mabel Annie loses her faith, leaves Frank and takes Mabel with her Meets Charlie Bradlaugh and gets involved in the Secular Society Annie and Charlie are prosecuted for publishing Dr. Knowlton’s The Fruits of Philosophy, a text about contraception Frank Besant wins custody of both children Annie joins the Fabian Society and promotes Socialism ‘Bloody Sunday’ — marchers at a Social Democratic Federation protest are attacked by police Annie leads the Bryant and May factory girls’ strike Meets Madam Blavatsky and converts to Theosophy Madam Blavatsky dies; Annie becomes leader of the Theosophical Society in Europe and India First visit to India
1847 1855 1867 1869 1871 1873 1874 1877 1879 1885 1887 1888 1889 1891 1893
For further information on Annie Besant’s life and the period see: Annie Besant, An Autobiography (London, T Fisher Unwin, 1893) Rosemary Dinnage, Annie Besant (Penguin, London, 1986) Mary Lutyens, The years of Awakening (London, 1975) Arthur H Nethercott, The Last Four Lives of Annie Besant (Rupert H Davies, 1963) Roland Vernon, Star in the East (Constable, London, 2000)
Jiddu Krishnamurti is regarded internationally as one of the great religious teachers of all time. For some sixty years he travelled throughout the world, giving public talks to increasingly large audiences. He has published over thirty books and founded schools in England, the United States and India. Information about his publications and recordings can be obtained from: Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, Brockwood Park. Bramdean Hampshire, SO24 0LQ, United Kingdom Telephone: Email:
+44 (0) 1962 771525 info@brockwood.org.uk
Fax: +44 (0) 1962 771159 Website: www.kfoundation.org
For the Study Centre and Retreat: The Krishnamurti Centre, at the same address: Telephone: Email:
+44 (0) 1962 771748 Fax: kcentre@brockwood.org.uk 10
+44 (0) 1962 771755
Rohit Gokani
Film work includes Good Sharma (in cinemas later this year,) High Heels and Low Lifes, Shooters, the Last Horror Movie and Tender Loving Care. TV: New Street Law, Little Britain, Grease Monkeys, Waking the Dead, Brookside, Murphy’s Law, Doctors, Casualty, Holby City, and Little Napoleons. Ranjit also writes and leads personal development workshops in his spare time.
Gandhi/ Judge Jessel/ Man Since leaving the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Rohit has worked in all areas of the profession. Recently he has just completed Gaddafi: A Living Myth for the English National Opera. Television credits include: a joy rider, Kamlesh Vora in Wire in the Blood, the crooked Ali in The Bill, Dalziel and Pascoe, the role of Mohammed in Adrian Mole - the Cappuccino Years, an armed robber in Crimewatch, Jadeng in the hit series Between the Lines for the BBC and DTI agent Harry Sudra in The Bill, and an episode of The Knock, playing a Pharmacist for LWT. His vast theatre experience includes the role of Shawn in the hilarious comedy Lords and Ladies, the character of Lee in Privates on Parade at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester, a national tour playing Ranji in It Can Damage Your Health, and a tour of England, Ireland and the United States in the leading role of Christian in Walkout. Radio Work includes Silver Street for the BBC, The Easter files for GWR and the role of D I Whitby in Father Gilbert Mysteries for Family Radio. When not acting Rohit enjoys gardening and windsurfing.
Vayu Naidu
Storyteller and Artistic Director, Vayu Naidu Company Vayu discovered Storytelling along the South Eastern Coast of India and in Chennai, her home city. She came to England in 1988 to study at the University of Leeds for her doctorate, which was on Indian Performance Oral traditions and their interpretations in contemporary western theatre. Her subsequent career has covered many fields including teaching, writing and performance, both as a solo artist and with musicians and dancers. In 2001 she founded Vayu Naidu Company, to promote storytelling as theatre, with a signature style combining text, music and dance. Its inaugural production was South, which she wrote and performed together with musician Orphy Robinson and three dancers in a UK national tour directed by Chris Banfield (2003). Other productions include Future Perfect, a storytelling performance collaboration with director/composer Judith Weir, which toured nationally (2000) as part of Contemporary Music Network, and did an All-India British Council tour with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in 2002; and Nothing but the Salt (2005), written by Vayu and combining live ‘cello with storytelling and video. She is on the advisory committee of Black Regional Initiative of Theatre at Arts Council England and chairs the Sustained Theatre Archiving group.
Ranjit Krishnamma
Narayaniah/ Governor/ Yogi Ranjit has worked widely throughout television, film and theatre both here and overseas. Recent theatre work includes Three Sisters with Messiaen, Playing with Fire at the National, Midnight’s Children with the RSC and Passage to India with Shared Experience. 11
Narinder Samra
Most recently Vayu was Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Postdoctoral Fellow in Creative and Performing Arts at The University of Kent at Canterbury’s Drama Department, from 2001–2004, and then Lecturer at the University of Kent until June 2006. In 2007 she was awarded a SEEDA Art Plus development award and also an award from Collide as a BME artist, to develop her new work Bhakti and Blues which will be performed in Birmingham in September 2007. Her playwriting work includes: There Comes a Karma, and When both directed by Vanessa Whitburn, BBC Radio 4 Drama; Playboy of the Asian World, (1999); Nine Nights, directed by Chris Banfield; and Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas? BBC Radio 4 (2003). Vayu’s books for children are published by Wayland Publishers, Collins UK and Tulika Books in Chennai, India, and her Ramayanan will be published in 2007.
Krishnamurti Narinder was born in Birmingham and studied at the City Lit in London, and the Lee Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles. Narinder spent a number of years working in Los Angeles where his stage credits include: Victor Mehta in David Hare’s A Map of the World; Moon on a Rainbow Shawl and A Family Affair. Recent UK theatre credits include A Fine Balance Tamasha/Hampstead Theatre and Taj for the Big Picture Co. On television, Narinder has appeared in the BBC/HBO co-production Dirty War as Barber Ashaf, Doctors, EastEnders (both BBC),and The Bill (Thames). Previous US Film & TV credits include: Dr Hackler in The One (Revolution Studios) and the narration of Nusrat: A Voice from Heaven — a documentary about the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Narinder can be currently heard as regular, Imran Jilani in the BBC Asian Network soap Silver Street. His other radio credits include: Bombay Talky, The Immigrants and The Lights (all BBC Radio).
Ruby Sahota
Sidra Ruby trained at Drama Studio London. She made her professional theatre debut playing Basanti and Uma in Bollywood, Yet Another Love Story (RIFCO/ Riverside Studios). Her recent theatre work has included: The Hot Zone (Conspirator’s Kitchen/BAC), Behna (Soho Theatre/Kali Theatre), Chale Ga, Chale Ga and The Learning Curve (Women and Theatre); and play development workshops with Conspirator’s Kitchen and Kali Theatre companies. She was also the lead in the short film Kitty Collins (Kitty Collins Productions). Through her membership of Tamasha Theatre’s Developing Artists programme, Ruby is a co-founder of a new theatre company, Barefoot Productions. She is also in the process of writing her first stage play. Prior to training as an actor, Ruby obtained a degree in Politics.
Rosalind Stockwell
Annie Besant Ros trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, got her Equity card in puppet theatre and spent many years as a performance artist with Phantom Captain. She has had lead roles in rep and in national and international tours especially in India and S E Asia, including Adriana in The Comedy of Errors and Amanda in Private Lives. She has worked in the West End and on the London Fringe, most recently at the Riverside as The Ratwife in Ibsen’s Little Eyolf. 12
As a voice-over artist Ros has worked in TV, radio and film, dubbing animations and features. After taking an MA at King’s College London and RADA, Ros was Theatre Studies tutor at Collingham Sixth Form College., and currently teaches the Stanislavski approach at the International School of Screen Acting. She is attempting to learn Russian for her next trip to Moscow. Ros has contributed articles to the Ham and High, London and the Madras Plus, India, where last year coincidentally she was staying in Adyar and visited the Theosophical Society. Wandering in the old gardens there, a haven in the midst of the bustle of Chennai, is one of those memories she won’t forget.
Tightrope (Pan McMillan); in Canada, Storywallah; in Pakistan, Dragonfly in the Sun and Leaving Home; and in India, And Then the World Changed (Women Unlimited), City of Sins and Splendour (Penguin). Her translations from Urdu poetry: We Sinful Women, and fiction, Altaf Fatima’s The One who Did not Ask, have also been widely acclaimed. Current commitments include an original play Letting Go, for Pursued by a Bear, and a radio adaptation for the BBC World Service of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Rukhsana has served as a Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund at Queen Mary’s University of London, and is currently an Advisory Fellow. She also chairs SALIDAA, South Asian Arts and Literature in the Diaspora Archive, of which she is a founding trustee.
Rukhsana Ahmad
Chris Banfield
Playwright Rukhsana Ahmad has consistently written and adapted plays for the stage and BBC Radio, achieving distinction in both. Stage plays include: Song for a Sanctuary, The Gate-Keeper’s Wife, Black Shalwar, River on Fire, (shortlist Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2002), The Man who refused to be God (2003), Last Chance and Partners in Crime (2004). Radio plays and adaptations include: Song for a Sanctuary, (CRE, runner-up prize), An Urnful of Ashes, The Errant Gene, Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero, Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, (shortlist CRE award and Writers’ Guild award for best adaptation), R. K. Narayan’s The Guide and Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers. Rukhsana wrote for Westway (BBC World Service Drama) for over a year and helped to create Pyaar ka Passort for BBC World Service Trust as a lead writer. Her first novel, The Hope Chest (Virago) was well received. Several short stories have been anthologized in collections internationally. In the UK, Right of Way, Flaming Spirit, The Inner Courtyard, The Man who loved Presents, Walking a
Director Chris began his professional collaboration with Vayu Naidu in 1999 when he directed Nine Nights — Stories from the Ramayana for the Leicester Haymarket Theatre. Since then he has directed more of the Vayu Naidu Company’s acclaimed productions including South, Joining Forces and Nothing but the Salt, all of which have toured nationally. Chris has a close association with India, having returned many times since his first visit. He has directed plays by several Indian theatre practitioners including the Bengali playwright and director Badal Sircar, and playwright, film director and actor Girish Karnad, on both of whose work he has written for Cambridge University Press. Other theatre production work includes: The Greenhouse Effect, ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore, Suddenly Last Summer, The Alchemist, La Folle de Chaillot, The Passion, The Crucible, The Lark, An Italian Straw Hat, Kes, You Can’t Take It With You, Animal Farm, Yerma, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Government Inspector, Dancing at Lughnasa. 13
Mark Dymock
with shows for Harry Enfield and Rowan Atkinson, My Fair Lady, and Steaming.
Lighting Designer Mark trained at Croydon College and is a member of the Association of Lighting Designers. This year Mark will light also Comedy of Errors for Ludlow Festival and The Hired Man for New Perspectives. His recent credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ludlow Festival); The Firebird (OTTC); Broadway in the Shadows (Treatment Theatre Ltd.); Shamlet (King’s Head); St George & the Dragon (Schtanhaus); Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Nuffield, Southampton). Mark has previously lit Dido, Queen of Carthage (Angels in the Architecture); Virgins (Company of Angels); Under Milk Wood, Big Baby (OTTC); Jason & The Argonauts (BAC & Tour); Educating Rita, Breezeblock Park (Liverpool Playhouse); Shoa, Hole, The Weir, The Entertainer, Macbeth, Ballroom (Nuffield Theatre); Appetite (Windsor Theatre Royal/Bill Kenwright Ltd); Beauty Sleeps (The Young Vic Company); World Cup 1966 (BAC and National Tour); Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, The Evidence, The Ghost Downstairs, Long way Home (New Perspectives); Last Train To Nibroc (New Perspectives/ Nuffield); Playing Sinatra (New End Theatre, Hampstead); Love and other Fairy Tales, The Chair Women, The Wedding, Sisters and Others, Seagulls, Stranded and Princess Sharon (Scarlet Theatre); The Portrait of Dorian Gray (Vienna’s English Theatre).
Marsha Roddy
Designer Marsha Roddy, throughout her 20-year production design career, has thrived on variety. Not content with just set and costume design for film, television, and theatre she has also done interior design and themed architecture. And it hasn’t been just the type of work that she has challenged herself with but also its location — in Amsterdam, she was production designer on a number of feature films for First Floor Features, in Los Angeles she was production designer for a number of independent films including the award-winning 73 Virgins and in the UK, she has worked at numerous theatres including the Sheffield Crucible, the Leicester Haymarket, Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre and the Lyric theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London. Recently she has been involved in a number of projects — including the interior of the 02 (formerly the Millennium Dome), which opens this summer; production design for The Number Jacks, a new animated CBBC programme; and set and costume design for the new play The Marriage Bed which premiered in both London and New York. Last summer was a busy time as well, as Marsha was the costume designer responsible for The Big Dance, which set a world record for the largest choreographed dance live on the BBC in Trafalgar Square, and she was also working on ‘Just a Minute’ for the Brahma Kumaris at Wembley Arena, promoting meditation and world-wide peace. Currently, Marsha is exploring yet another aspect of design, working with the Artist French Mottershead on a performance art piece, at the Tate Modern, Liverpool and the ICA. This is Marsha’s second production for Vayu Naidu Company; she also designed South and she is very excited to be back designing Mistaken…
Kate Edwards
Production Manager Kate’s career has spanned all aspects of the performing arts, and she has production and company managed a diverse range of events over 20 years, from high-profile media extravaganza for major plcs to long-running West End productions. Corporate events include presentations for McKinsey Consulting, Jaeger, Tag Aviation, Viva Espana, BT, British Gas, Department of Health, Lotus Cars, Royal Institute of British Architects, Harpers Bazaar, and London Fashion Week. Theatre productions include West End shows Dead Funny, The Invisible Man, Maxwell the Musical Review, Three Tall Women, What a Performance, A Passionate Woman and The Secret Policeman’s Biggest Ball. Kate has also toured the UK extensively 14
Storyteller and Artistic Director Dr Vayu Naidu
The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre is one of the UK’s leading producing theatres. Since 1991 it has created 119 productions (including 60 new plays), which have toured to 80 different cities in the United Kingdom providing 673 weeks of product for other regional theatres. Of the 119 productions, 53 then transferred to London, 32 of which were new plays. Its scenery workshops, in addition to creating sets for the Yvonne Arnaud’s stage, have built for Glyndebourne, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Chichester Festival Theatre and most of the country’s leading commercial companies.
General Manager Jenny Campbell Administrator Tuhina Ahmed Education Co-ordinator Emily Parrish Patron Girish Karnad
Director and Chief Executive James Barber
Board Dee Ashworth · Dr Darryll Grantley Kathleen Hamilton · Cathy Hull Alan Maley obe · Shivaji Shiva (Chair)
General Manager Brian Kirk Chief Finance Officer Sarah Gatward
Associate Artists Rukhsana Ahmad · Chris Banfield Orphy Robinson · Nona Shepphard Judith Weir cbe
Funding Executive Clare Fox Operations Manager Nick White
Vayu Naidu Company Limited Unit LFB2, Lafone House, The Leathermarket 11–13 Leathermarket Street, London SE1 3HN Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7378 0739 Website: www.vayunaiducompany.org.uk
PA to Director Dawn Kerry Assistant to General Manager Carmela Amaddio Head of Marketing Dan McWilliam
Vayu Naidu Company gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Arts Council England. Vayu Naidu Company Ltd. is registered in the UK, Company No. 4326115 and Charity No. 1116715
Box Office Manager Tim Slater Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Guildford Borough Council, ACE SE and the Foundation for Sport and the Arts.
www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk 15
MISTAKEN... Tour 2007
Tues 22 May – Sun 27 May with BSL interpretation Thu 24 at 7.30 pm Cochrane Theatre, Southampton Row, London 020 7269 1606 · www.cochranetheatre.co.uk
Wed 25 – Sat 28 April 2007 Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Millbrook, Guildford 01483 44 00 00 · www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk
Tue 29 May – Wed 30 May at 7.30 pm Trinity Theatre, Church Road, Tunbridge Wells 01892 678678 · www.trinitytheatre.net
Weds 2 May – Sat May at 8 pm Northern Stage, Stage 2 Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne 0191 230 5151 · www.northernstage.co.uk
Thurs 3 May at 7.30 pm Oxford Playhouse, Beaumont Street, Oxford 01865 305305 · www.oxfordplayhouse.com
Thu 10 May – Sat 12 May at 7.30 pm Peepul Centre Orchardson Avenue, Leicester 0845 310 3344 · www.peepularts.com
Fri 1 June – Sun 3 June Old Rep Theatre, Station Street, Birmingham 0121 303 2323 · www.oldreptheatre.org.uk
Tue 15 May – Wed 16 May at 7.30 pm South Hill Park Ringmead, Bracknell 01344 484 123 · www.southhillpark.org.uk
Thu 7 June – Sat 9 June at 7.30 pm Artsdepot, Tally Ho Corner, London 0208 369 5454 · www.artsdepot.co.uk
Forthcoming Events 2007 An Indian Summer of Storytelling
Other Events
‘Darwaza: Doorways to Wisdom’ as part of the Freetime event Somerset House, The Gilbert Collection 26 – 29 July
Presence in Performance Storytelling Masterclass: 20 – 22 June 2007 for details please see our website ‘Bhakti and the Blues’ a storytelling theatre performance as part of the Collide Festival, at the Drum, Birmingham 13 September 2007
‘Heavenly Herbs and Hanuman the Healer’ Wellcome Trust Library, South Asian Collection: date to be confirmed ‘Southern Sojourn’ Noble Sage art gallery (East Finchley, London): 20 July, 17 August, 21 September
‘Re-Telling India’ a presentation in collaboration with Trestle as part of the deciBel showcase, Birmingham 3 – 7 September 2007
For more details see: www.london.gov.uk/india
www.vayunaiducompany.org.uk 16