Lions and Tigers
Published on 23. September 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-350-23477-2 (ISBN)
Description
"Tanika Gupta's epic drama pushes the boundaries of verbatim theatre, telling an important story in a fresh and authentic way never seen on stage before. A rousing piece of work." - Greg Walker, University of Edinburgh, UK
Based on the true story of Tanika Gupta's great uncle, Lions and Tigers follows 19-year-old Dinesh Gupta's emotional and political awakening as a freedom fighter pitting himself against the British Raj.
Drawn from family stories that the playwright herself heard from early childhood, the play teems with details drawn from her grandfather's 500-page handwritten journal about his younger brother, and from the 92 letters written by her great uncle from his prison cell.
Set against the backdrop of negotiations between the leaders of the Indian National Congress and culminating in actions that shook the very foundations of the British Empire, Lions and Tigers challenges our assumptions about Indian independence and offers powerful new insights into the battles between the British lions and the Bengal tigers.
The play was first performed at Shakespeare's Globe from the 23rd August to 16th September 2017, and was awarded the James Tait Black Prize for Drama in 2018. It is published here in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series for the first time, with a brand new introduction by Durba Ghosh.
Based on the true story of Tanika Gupta's great uncle, Lions and Tigers follows 19-year-old Dinesh Gupta's emotional and political awakening as a freedom fighter pitting himself against the British Raj.
Drawn from family stories that the playwright herself heard from early childhood, the play teems with details drawn from her grandfather's 500-page handwritten journal about his younger brother, and from the 92 letters written by her great uncle from his prison cell.
Set against the backdrop of negotiations between the leaders of the Indian National Congress and culminating in actions that shook the very foundations of the British Empire, Lions and Tigers challenges our assumptions about Indian independence and offers powerful new insights into the battles between the British lions and the Bengal tigers.
The play was first performed at Shakespeare's Globe from the 23rd August to 16th September 2017, and was awarded the James Tait Black Prize for Drama in 2018. It is published here in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series for the first time, with a brand new introduction by Durba Ghosh.
Reviews / Votes
An ambitious, driving play... Lions and Tigers is a political history as much as it is a personal one, and it swings from dense history lecture to intimate storytelling, where Gupta's writing is at its most playful and potent. -- Corrie Tan * The Guardian * A powerful new play... It's typical of the play's freshness that it looks at the role of women in the cause of independence (and acknowledges those who feel they would have to unshackle themselves from Indian men first)... An impressive piece - warm, humorous, stirring, and deeply sad. -- Paul Taylor * The Independent * Seventy years on from the partition of India, the bloody legacy of mass displacement and sectarian conflict remains. But rather than dwelling on partition's effects, Tanika Gupta's new play celebrates the spirit of independence that preceded it... Flashes of humour punctuate a script that doesn't shy away from the ugly business of torture and grooming. -- Henry Hitchings * Evening Standard *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 8 mm
Weight
159 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-23477-2 (9781350234772)
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Schweitzer Classification
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