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TARA ARTS www.tara-arts.com 1 EDUCATION RESOURCE PACK 2013 UK TOUR

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TARA ARTS

www.tara-arts.com 1

EDUCATION RESOURCE PACK

2013 UK TOUR

TARA ARTS

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Contact Details Telephone 020 8333 4457 E-mail [email protected] Tara Arts, 356 Garratt Lane, London, SW18 4ES Tara Arts team Artistic Director Jatinder Verma Executive Director Jonathan Kennedy Associate Director - Design Claudia Mayer Marketing Officer Amy Briggs Development Officer Ine Van Riet Theatre Administrator Martina Ferry / Alexandra Wyatt Finance Officer Xiao Hong (Sharon) Zhang Registered Charity No: 295547

CONTENTS

• Kanjoos The Miser & the National Curriculum

• About Tara Arts

• About Tara Arts’ production

• Background – Moliere, The Miser and Farce

• Bollywood Film & Music

• Note from co-writer Hardeep Singh Kohli

• Creative Team & Cast Biographies

• Production Design from Kanjoos – The Miser

• Reviews & Press Quotes

• Script glossary

• Kanjoos – The Miser: 2013 Tour Dates & Theatres

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Kanjoos The Miser & the National Curriculum Tara Arts’ production of Kanjoos The Miser is adapted by Hardeep Singh Kohli & Jatinder Verma. This new English version of Moliere’s classic French comedy is set in modern India and incorporates Bollywood song and dance. The production is suitable for study at Key Stage 3 and 4 including teaching across the national curriculum in:

English & Theatre Studies Critical Understanding: Engaging with ideas and texts, understanding and responding to the main issues. Assessing the validity and significance of information and ideas from different sources. Analysing and evaluating spoken and written language to appreciate how meaning is shaped.

Music Understanding musical traditions and the part music plays in global culture. Exploring how ideas, experiences and emotions are conveyed in a range of music from different times and cultures. Exploring ways music can be combined with other art forms. Exploring how thoughts, feelings, ideas and emotions can be expressed through music.

Citizenship Range and Content: Political, Legal and Human rights, responsibilities of citizens. How economic decisions are made including where public money comes from and who decides how it is spent. How actions that individuals, groups and organisations can take to influence decisions affecting communities and the environment.

Modern Languages (FRENCH) Awareness of aspects of other cultures such as everyday life, social customs, and events. Making comparisons to their own culture and society. Recognising that languages differ but may share common expressions.

This Education Resource Pack has been designed to give teachers and students information about the play, Tara Arts’ production and practical classroom games and exercises linked to the National Curriculum to support student visits to see the theatre production on tour. CLASSROOM EXERCISES & ACTIVITIES are indicated throughout this Education Resource Pack. Journey to the West (2001) A Taste for Mangoes (2003) The Black Album (2009)

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About Tara Arts

Tara Arts is a pioneering cross-cultural theatre company founded in 1977. Global Theatre for Local Audiences is the company’s artistic vision. The vision sets out Tara Arts’ ambition to engage diverse artists and audiences in London and on tour in cross-cultural theatre.

Tara Arts was the first company to provide Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic artists a voice and a space to share their respective cultural heritages with all audiences. It was also the first ethnic company to be invited to present its work at the National Theatre.

Its home in south London is the base for a range of theatre activity every year:

• Production of European and Asian classics and modern plays • Tours to junior schools of plays based on the great stories of the world • Development of young and mid-career artists • Engaging new audiences with the Arts

Artistic Director Jatinder Verma co-founded Tara Arts. In 1989 he directed his adaptation of Moliere’s Tartuffe at the National Theatre with an all-Asian cast – the first such company to be seen on the National stage. Tara Arts has an exemplary record of artistic excellence across four decades, which includes more co-productions with the National Theatre - The Little Clay Cart (1991), Cyrano (1995) and The Black Album (2009). The company also staged an outstanding trilogy of plays - Journey to the West, an epic of modern migration across 9 cities in Britain, in 2002. Recent successes include the bi-lingual production of People’s Romeo (2010), the popular pantomime, Bollywood Cinderella (2011), Dick Whittington goes Bollywood (2012) and Just So – a new Opera by Farrukh and Danyal Dhondy based on Kipling’s stories for children. Tara Arts has seen a multitude of exceptionally talented young, mid-career and established artists pass through its doors. These range from the established, such as Hanif Kureishi CBE, Ian McMillan and Alex Wheatle MBE to Ayub Khan Din (East is East), composer Nitin Sawhney, Sanjeev Bhaskar (The Kumars at No 42), Naveen Andrews (The English Patient and LOST), Sudha Bhuchar (Tamasha Theatre) and many more. Tara Arts plans for the coming year are to redevelop its south London venue into a dedicated cross-cultural theatre. The current tour forms an integral part of the developing story of Tara Arts and its mission to ensure cross-cultural theatre for new generations of audiences and artists. Patrons: Gurpreet Bhatti, Sir Richard Eyre CBE, Shobana Jeyasingh MBE, Naseem Khan OBE, Hanif Kureishi CBE, Baroness Usha Prashar CBE, Sir Salman Rushdie and Nitin Sawhney.

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About Tara Arts production Molière’s classic comedy The Miser is re-named Kanjoos (Hindi for “miser”) – The Miser and is transported from 17th century France to modern India. By setting the play in modern India, Tara Arts production presents a Bollywood version of the classic French farce, while remaining faithful to Moliere’s orginial story, characters and rapid-fire comedy.

KANJOOS THE MISER

by Molière adapted by Hardeep Singh Kohli & Jatinder Verma

from a literal translation by Patricia Dreyfus

In money-mad modern India, there lives in a small town a man called Harjinder (Harpagon in the original French), who is known locally as "makhi choos" (fly-sucking miser). A man who relentlessly quotes Gandhi's principles of self-sacrifice to justify hoarding his wealth. While he hates spending money, his children are desperate to get married and escape to the Bollywood life-style of nearby Mumbai.

This new version of Moliere's classic farce is a comedy for our money-obsessed times.

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Background – Moliere, The Miser and Farce Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, (15th January 1622 – 17th February 1673) was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature.

Among Molière's best-known works are Le Misanthrope (The Misanthrope), L'École des femmes (The School for Wives), Tartuffe ou L'Imposteur, (Tartuffe or the Imposter), L'Avare (The Miser), Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid) and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman). L'Avare is a 1668 five-act satirical comedy and its’ title is usually translated to The Miser when the play is performed in English. The play was first performed in 1668 at the Palais Royal in a period when Molière's company was, on the one hand, under considerable establishment pressure to modify its output, but on the other hand, under the protection of Louis XIV himself. Little is known about the original performance, although it is said that Molière himself played Harpagon.

The Miser is a farcical comedy of manners about a rich moneylender named Harpagon. His feisty children long to escape from his penny-pinching household and marry their respective lovers. The play is also notable for the way in which it sends up certain theatrical conventions. Many comedies from the Elizabethan period and onwards contain asides delivered by characters to the audience which the other actors ignore. In The Miser, however, characters generally demand to know who exactly these asides are being delivered to.

(Wikipedia – Edited Version) CLASSROOM EXERCISE

In Kanjoos The Miser what do you think Moliere (& the adapters) want to say about Harjinder? How realistic is the comedy? Can you think of similar examples from today? What effect does Harjinder’s obsession with money have on his children?

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BOLLYWOOD FILM & MUSIC

Bollywood film is the largest and most popular film industry in the world. Many hundreds of Bollywood films are made in India each year. As a genre, Bollywood emerges directly from English Music Hall theatre. The films are known for their simple moral stories, heightened characters, colour, songs and high-energy dance routines. In Tara Arts production all of the music is taken from classic Bollywood films.

• The song “Eyk dho teen…” from AWARA

• The song “Ai dil mushkil jeena yahan…” from CID

• The song “Zindabaad, zindabaad, ai mohabat…” from MUGHAL-E-AZAM

• The song “Dum maro dum…” from HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA

• The song “Jaaney kya tuuney kahi…” from PYAASA

• The song “Dhire dhire chal chand gagan mein” from LOVE MARRIAGE

• The famous ‘Twist’ song "Eena Meena Deeka..." from the film ASHA (1957)

CLASSROOM EXERCISE

What affect did live music have in the performance? In Bollywood films the movie actors lip-synch (mime) to the music. What affect did this have in Tara Arts’ production? The Bollywood songs in Kanjoos The Miser convey meaning to explain the story and emotive content in the scenes:

• Ye Hai Bombai Meri Jaan (Kishore’s song) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlAOZrst6fQ

• Zindabaad (Love song) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0CIZv9Y5n4

• Eena Meena Dika (The twist song) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85-vsILZjvw

You can watch Tara Arts trailer for the show, to hear some of the Bollywood songs extracts

http://tara-arts.com/whats-on/kanjoos-the-miser--national-tour-2013

Can you think of suitable alternative songs from other musical traditions that could be used in the performance?

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Note from Hardeep Singh Kohli

“Has there ever been a better time to revisit Molière’s The Miser? It is King Louis XIV’s France. Louis emboldened 17th century Paris - a Paris at the zenith of fashion, a city of architectural splendour, titillating gossip and political intrigue. 2012. Our world spins on an axis of the financial, orbits the chaos of consumerism. We have crashed and burned, seemingly imprisoned by the free market. While the worlds may seem different human nature has changed little. But today’s India…well, its trajectory is inexorably upward. Molière’s Harpagon becomes Tara Arts’ Harjinder, and while the names change, the accents and a few references it is astonishing how crackling,

how coruscatingly contemporary the narrative is, particularly given the mores of modern, ebullient India. I was initially marked by Molière 25 years ago, watching Liz Lochead’s stunning Scots translation of Tartuffe. Jatinder Verma brought me The Miser, a play I had heard much about but had never seen produced. The humour, the politics, the challenge to theatrical convention: there’s so much to love about Molière.”

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Creative Team & Cast Biographies Director/co-writer: Jatinder Verma

Jatinder Verma is Artistic Director of Tara Arts. Most recently Jatinder directed the Just So opera for the Tête à Tête Festival. In 2009 he directed Hanif Kureishi's The Black Album for the National Theatre and a UK Tour. He first worked at the National in 1989, with an acclaimed version of Molière's Tartuffe. In 2011 he directed the Tara Arts Christmas pantomime, Bollywood Cinderella and Alex Wheatle's Uprising which toured the UK.

Designer: Claudia Mayer

Claudia Mayer trained with Percy Harris at Motley and has worked freelance in opera, ballet and theatre. Work for Tara Arts includes: Miranda, Marriage of Figaro, An Enemy of the People, The Merchant of Venice, Journey to the West (a trilogy), 2001 a Ramayan Odyssey and two large- scale events in Trafalgar Square.

Lighting Designer: Howard Hudson

Howard Hudson studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design. He won the Off West End Award for Best Lighting Design in 2011 and 2012. Productions for Tara Arts include: Miranda, People’s Romeo and Bollywood Cinderella. Other recent projects include, Mack and Mabel, The Illusion (Southwark Playhouse), Strong Arm (503 and Old Vic New Voices), Cornelius (Finborough) and 1936 (Sadlers Wells).

Translator: Patricia Dreyfus

Patricia Dreyfus first became interested in the subtleties of translation versus interpretation whilst writing her dissertation on the French and Italian versions of Melville’s Moby Dick at Sussex University. When she was asked by Tara Arts to work on The Miser, she rose to the challenge of staying faithful to the spirit of Molière.

Writer/Adaptation: Hardeep Singh Kohli Hardeep Singh Kohli, as well as being a seasoned reporter, comic, cook and presenter, he has had an acclaimed career as a journalist and writer. His column in Scotland on Sunday saw him nominated twice for Scottish Columnist of the year as well as articles for The Independent on Sunday, The Guardian and The Times. For Channel 4 he wrote and presented the BAFTA award winning In Search of the Tartan Turban. Hardeep has previously performed at the Tara Theatre with sold-out audiences for his Edinburgh shows Chat Masala, The Nearly Naked Chef and Indian Takeaway.

Website: www.hardeepsinghkohli.co.uk

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CLASSROOM EXERCISE

For Tara Arts’ production, Patricia Dreyfus’ literal translation was used by Hardeep Singh Kohli & Jatinder Verma to write their adaptation. The names of the characters in their version were changed to fit in the modern Indian setting.

Using an original French version of the Moliere’s play can you work out which character is which from the original script? See the cast biographies below for clues.

CAST & MUSICIANS

Antony Bunsee Character: Harjinder Trained: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and University of Exeter. Stage: Dracula (Derby Playhouse), Revengers’ Tragedy (tour), The White Devil (tour), Homebody Kabul (Cheek by Jowel) and A Passsage to India (Shared Experience). For the RSC: The Odyssey, Tamburlaine, The School of Night, Midnights’ Children and The Histories Company (2006 - 8). For Tara Arts: The Government Inspector, Oedipus, Pinocchio Gone Asia and The Merchant of Venice.TV: Hollyoaks, My Family and Eastenders.Film: Get The Picture, Dorian Gray, Sex and the City 2 and Jadoo.

Sam Kordbacheh

Character: Valmiki

Trained: The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA).Stage: Hysteria (Theatre Royal Bath), The Merchant of Venice, Peter Pan, Noises Off, The Talented Mr Ripley (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch) and Dick Whittington goes Bollywood (Tara Arts) TV: Genie in the House (Nickelodeon)

Krupa Pattani

Characters: Dimple/ Lalli Farishta

Trained: Drama Studio London.Stage: Twelfth Night and Masters Are You Mad? (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre), Bollywood Cinderella and Dick Whittington goes Bollywood (Tara Arts), dinnerladies: Second Helpings (UK Tour), Moonfleece (Riverside Studios and UK tour), Starfish (London Tour/Y Touring), Lichentongue (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Unzipped (Young Vic/ Talawa), Handful of Henna (Sheffield Theatres), The Borrowers (MAC) and Child of the Divide (Polka Theatre/ Tamasha).TV: MI High and Casualty (BBC).

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Deven Modha

Characters: Kishore/ Manju

Trained: Birmingham School of Acting.Stage: Dick Whittington goes Bollywood for Tara Arts. Member of Tamasha Theatre’s Developing Artists’ Programme. Film: Shoot Me (Palladio Film)

Mehrish Yasin Characters: Mariam/ Kohli Trained: Drama Studio London.Stage: Pentecost (St Leonards Shoreditch), Arabian Nights (Blue Orange Theatre), Once We Were Mothers and The Winter’s Tale, and Dick Whittington goes Bollywood (Tara Arts).

Caroline Kilpatrick Characters: Frosine/ Aslam Trained: RADA. Stage: The Tempest, the Hotbed season Dick Whittington goes Bollywood (Tara Arts), Innocence and Yerma (The Arcola), Stephen and the Sexy Partridge (Old Red Lion). Radio: Guilty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hobson’s Choice, Rel, The Death of Tintagel and The Love of the Nightingale.Film: The Invisible Woman

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Sohini Alam Singer Sohini Alam is a British vocalist of Bangladeshi descent whose musical repertoire includes folk, patriotic, modern and traditional Bengali songs with a specialisation in Nazrul Sangeet (music of Kazi Nazrul Islam, a Bengali poet). She has branched out into multi-lingual music in bands, dance and theatre. A third generation vocalist, Sohini trained in music with Hiron Alam, Jannat Ara and Ferdous Ara. She is the lead vocalist for Khiyo (British Bengali band) and Kishon Khan’s Afro-Cuban-Bengali Jazz band, Lokkhi Terra.

Khiyo: www.khiyo.com

Danyal Dhondy Composer/Keyboard Danyal Dhondy is a London-based composer and arranger. He has written two operas this year: Just So (Tête à Tête Festival directed by Jatinder Verma) and The Open Cage (The Yard). He has made arrangements for OperaUpClose and Malmö Opera, which led to a nomination for an Arts Foundation Award in Opera Composition. He has arranged string parts for albums including Sam Lee’s Mercury-nominated Ground of its Own and composed three pieces for Kensington Chamber Orchestra. Website: www.danyaldhondy.com

Hassan Mohyeddin Percussion Hassan Mohyeddin is a tabla player, multi-percussionist and music Producer. He hails from the Punjab School of Tabla, having trained for several years with tabla maestro, Ustad Lachhman Singh Seen. Hassan has a degree in music production and sound engineering from the London School of Sound and has worked as a professional musician for the last ten years. He has toured many countries, collaborating with artists including Nahid Siddiqui, Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan and Baluji Srivastav. He currently plays in London based bands Lokkhi Terra and Khiyo.

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Production Design For the production run @ Tara Theatre, Autumn 2012

CLASSROOM EXERCISE Having seen the performance and the photographs, discuss in groups or 4 or 5.

How do the costume designs help you understand about the characters in the story?

Think about how the designer uses colour and Indian costumes to help tell the story.

What did young middle-class men and women wear in 17th century Paris?

Go on-line to research and discover what the main differences are from Tara Arts’ version?

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Press Review & Quotes: Kanjoos – The Miser Production run at Tara Theatre, 26th September - 13th October 2012

On-stage musicians welcome the crowd to their seats and create an informal atmosphere like a family get-together rather than a drama. The Spectator Hardeep Singh Kohli’s script drips with pop culture references while keeping Moliere’s joy of the ridiculous intact. Each member of this charming ensemble sends up both classic and contemporary stereotypes with joyous abandon. This warm and funny show is just the tonic to counter the cold pinch of austerity. The Stage Kohli’s mischievous updating and the irresistible sense of fun generated by Jatinder Verma’s playfully chaotic production. Impressive musical accompaniment is provided by Sohini Alam’s sweeping vocals backed up admirably by some surprisingly experimental electronic squelching by Danny Dhondy. Exeunt Magazine ***** 5 STARS “A fabulous vibrant, colourful and extremely funny theatre piece from Tara Arts. It shows the company’s distinctive style at its best: inventive and eclectic in its hybridisation between eastern and western influences; self-consciously knowing in its relationship to the audience; and unpredictable in the way it weaves the rough theatre of folklore with a more contemporary perspective on the India that has become capitalism’s latest poster-boy. The language is a wonderfully rich mix of Indian English. The staging conventions play up both western and Indian comic traditions in the minimal, but very atmospheric set created by Claudia Mayer

The Public Reviews CLASSROOM EXERCISE Imagine you are a theatre critic writing for a national newspaper. Write a review of the production.

How does Tara Arts translate Moliere’s original French farce to modern India? Convey the story and what you felt about the production to a reader who has not seen the play. Avoid using clichéd expressions such as “enjoyed it” or “colourful”.

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For the production Tara Arts has produced a fun glossary of Indian terms and expression used in the performance of Kanjoos The Miser to amuse audiences and entertain the uninitiated.

CLASSROOM EXERCISE

Write a short story which includes at least 15 words and/or phrases from the glossary.

Does the use of Indian words/phrases give a unique sense of time and place to your story?

How would you describe the culture you conjure in your story?

GLOSSARY

HAVELI Mansion CHAPPAL Sandal SMILING GANDHIS Rupee notes KUNDALINI Life-force GHAZALS A form of poetic song – similar to a sonnet

PENJI Sister

KISMET Fate FARISHTA Angel AGGAR BATI Incense A KADU Pumpkin JAAN Soul MELA Fun-fair BHAGAVAD-GITA Ancient Hindu scripture DHARAVI Mumbai’s largest slum TAMASHA A grand show TANGA-WALLAH buggy driver PUKKA Complete, fully formed RISHTA Marriage arrangement ANNA Penny, smallest denomination of Indian currency

ISHQ Love

NEEM An evergreen tree of the mahogany family, with medicinal properties

VAKILS Lawyers

DANDA stick, but also a crude description IZZAT Honour LAKHS One hundred thousand GULI-DANDA Stick-and-stone game PARVEEN BABI Glamorous Hindi film actress

SABZIS Vegetables

HEMA MALINI Another Hindi film actress KHEER Rice pudding AHWAIRYA RAI former Miss World, now one of the famous film actresses

KHICHLDI Rice and lentil gruel – usually eaten when ill

CHUA Mouse, Tiny ALMIRAH Wardrobe MA-BAAP Mother-father, elders ALLAH-KASAM an oath (‘I swear in Allah’s

name’)

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Kanjoos – The Miser: 2013 UK Tour Mon 18 to Sat 23 February THEATRE ROYAL WINDSOR Thames Street, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1PS Box Office 01753 853 888 www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk Tues 26 February to Sat 2 March DUNDEE REP Tay Square, Dundee, DD1 1PB, Scotland Box Office 01382 223530 www.dundeerep.co.uk Wed 6 to Sat 9 March STRATFORD CIRCUS Theatre Square, London, E15 1BX Box Office 0844 357 2625 www.stratford-circus.com Tues 12 March KEY THEATRE Embankment Road, Peterborough, PE1 1EF Box Office 01733 207239 www.vivacity-peterborough.com Thurs 14 to Fri 15 March MARLOWE THEATRE The Friars, Canterbury, CT1 2AS Box Office 01227 787 787 www.marlowetheatre.com Wed 20 to Sat 23 March THEATRE ROYAL Westgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1QR Box Office 01284 769505 www.theatreroyal.org