Artistic Director Abdul Shayek announces his first season for Tara Theatre

Abdul Shayek has announced his first programme for the newly rebranded Tara Theatre; the UK’s longest established Asian, Black and ethnically diverse led theatre company.

Shayek was appointed in August 2020, beginning a bold new chapter at a moment that has led to unequivocal consensus that things urgently need to change. 

In the forty years since Tara Theatre was founded, the sector and wider society is still grappling with a lack of representation, equity and equality and systemic structures that have a detrimental effect on people from Asian, Black and ethnically diverse backgrounds. Shayek has set out his intention for Tara Theatre to be an agent for this much needed change, addressing the widespread lack of diversity and inclusivity in the theatre sector and beyond. 

Returning to its activist roots, the new season will feature politically charged, innovative theatre on stage. They will create a contemporary and democratic space in their South Wandsworth venue; the centre of a community of artists of all ages from all backgrounds. It will work across the UK, focusing on areas with large South Asian diaspora communities, including Greater Manchester, Leicester, Coventry, Birmingham, Derby and Leeds. 

The first season will champion South Asian artists and amplify their voices. The programme includes Final Farewell, an outdoor audio journey conceived and directed by Abdul Shayek and written by Sudha Bhuchar, exploring how we say a proper goodbye to those lost in the pandemic, culminating in a celebratory finale at Tara Theatre each night. The season will also feature 2020, 12 new monologues from Hassan Abdulrazzak, Shahid Iqbal Khan, BBC Words finalist Amina Atiq, Erinn Dhesi, Reginald Edmund, Carlo Kureishi, Hanif Kureishi, Asif Khan, Yuqun Fan, Abhishek Majumdar, Sumerah Srivastav, Sonali Bhattacharyya (Winner of Theatre Uncut Political Playwrighting Award) and Shreya Sen-Handley (recently announced as the first Indian woman to pen an international opera). The new works are directed by Gitika Buttoo, Iqbal Khan (recently announced as associate director at Birmingham Rep) and Pooja Ghai and Abdul Shayek. The building will reopen with Beyond Lockdown, a project working with a local school, capturing students' hopes and dreams for the future, putting young people centre stage.

Artistic Director Abdul Shayak said: “Tara Theatre will be a catalyst and agent for change within the UK theatre landscape, addressing the widespread lack of diversity and inclusivity and changing our sector. Our work will explore the complexities of our world through a South Asian lens, championing contemporary South Asian voices and artists, identifying new narratives, new ideas and new forms and offering a more equitable and representative space.” 

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