Tamasha Take Bronte to Bollywood

Tamasha Theatre Company, formed in 1989 as a partnership between director Kristine Landon-Smith and actor/playwright Sudha Bhuchar, have announced the full cast and tour dates for their 2009 musical adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The production will tour the UK from 13 March to 20 June and is a Tamasha and Oldham Coliseum co-production in association with the Lyric Hammersmith.

The hot, scorched desert landscape of Rajasthan is the setting for Tamasha’s evocative musical interpretation of Emily Brontë’s timeless tale of passion, jealousy and revenge. 1770s Rajasthan, with its rigid social hierarchy, inequality of wealth and Victorian influences, is an ideal location for this story of passion corrupted by prevailing social values. In place of the cold moors, the wild scorched expanse of the desert provides a symbolic setting for the doomed love affair of Shakuntala and Krishan (Cathy and Heathcliff from the original novel).

Tamasha hope that the musical will fuse a Bollywood cinematic treatment with other more classical elements of a western musical. For the tour the lovers will be played by Youkti Patel and Pushpinder Chani. They will be supported in the cast by Adeel Akhtar, Shammi Aulakh, Rina Fatania, Anil Kumar, Divian Ladwa, Sheena Patel, Davina Perera, Gary Pillai and Amith Rahman.

The nationwide tour begins on 13 March at the Oldham Coliseum Theatre and will continue on to venues including Exeter Northcott (7-11 April), Citizens Theatre Glasgow (21-25 April), Northern Stage Newcastle (27-30 May), Nuffield Theatre Southampton (2-6 June), Belgrade Theatre Coventry (9-13 June), Harrogate Theatre (16-20 June).

It will also appear for an extended run at London’s Lyric Hammersmith from 29 April until 23 May. The original concept for the musical was created by Deepak Verma. Kristine Landon-Smith directs while the music is from Felix Cross and Sheema Mukherjee with lyrics by Felix Cross.

- by Kate Jackson

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