Latest Events in which I have participated
Winter 2005-2006: I went to India with Gail Rosier on an Arts Council-sponsored Research & Development project which will hopefully lead to an English-language production of my second play (to be called Mozart Chocolates). Gail Rosier had directed the English-language production of my first play in 2000, but at that time she had no direct experience of India. This visit was to immerse Gail in Bengali culture and give her an exposure to Bengali performances.
First, in September 2005 Gail and I read an extract from Mozart Chocolates at the Farnham Maltings and in October 2005 we attended the Piers Playwrights Conference in Chichester.
Then at the end of December we flew to Calcutta. Outside Calcutta we visited Tamluk, Mahishadal, Naradari. and Harikhali in Eastern Medinipur (some of these places I had visited in my previous trip), and the Santiniketan campus in the Birbhum District.
We have seen performances of all kinds - from the latest avant-garde and social drama to comedy and traditional music-and-dance-based folk forms (Chhou and Nachnee from the Purulia District) and modern social-satirical 'jatra' and genuine contemporary music-theatre. In Mahishadal where I inaugurated the diamond jubilee of the Gayeswari Girls’ High School, we saw a brilliant school production of Tagore’s Taser Desh. The next day we saw a historical play by 'adult amateurs' in full regalia (including the characters of a French General and a British Governor-General) with prompters in the wings!
In Calcutta we saw productions by many renowned groups and went backstage to talk to the directors and actors. We were treated very graciously and warmly, and Gail took everything in her stride. At least two of the Calcutta productions were of translated or adapted texts (one from French into Bengali, the other from Bengali into Hindi). In one of the shows I was asked by Badal Sircar, the grand old man of Bengali theatre, to launch the playscript of the play being performed. As a result we were interviewed by a paper. The report, with a photograph of Gail and myself sitting with the eminent man, can be viewed on the Internet edition of the paper by clicking on the following link:
We also saw modern art, met visual artists and many writers. We visited people in their homes and were entertained and taken out, so that Gail could experience Bengali hospitality. The trip has been very educative for her for the development of her inter-cultural awareness, and indeed for me as a dramatist, for I have now had an opportunity to see remarkable productions which I might not have had a chance to see without the framework of this project. Gail has observed hours and hours of Bengali ‘theatre language’, with all its components of social satire, humour, intellectual interrogation, witty dialogue, lyricism and musicality.
In February 2006, after Gail had left, I went to Imphal, Manipur, in North-East India, to inaugurate a translation seminar organized by the Sahitya Akademi and the Manipur Cultural Forum: also a wonderful and educative experience. I saw some remarkable traditional performances there too, and met and talked to the staff and students of the English Department of the University.
December 2005: Speaker at the launch of Julius Lipner’s translation of Anandamath, Nehru Centre, London
November 2005: Participant in the Cultural Co-operation 'KNOW YOUR PLACE?' conference in London
Winter 2004-2005: My visit to India brought its crop of engagements: a reading in a programme at the Crossword bookshop in Calcutta in December 2004, in honour of Buddhadeva Bose; an open air reading in Tamluk, District Medinipur, in connection with a flower show which I inaugurated, on 26 December 2004 (the day of the tsunami), and later the same evening, a most memorable reading at the near-by village of Naradari, in the home of Prof. Dilip Ray; a lecture and a poetry reading in Santiniketan in January 2005; a reading in Delhi’s India International Centre in January 2005, for the launch of my latest English poetry collection, together with the three other poets whose collections were also published in the same Golden Jubilee project of Sahitya Akademi; after my return from Delhi a talk on the recurrent issues in literary translation given to the Asiatic Society of Calcutta (February 2005). During this visit I also gave a lecture at the English Department of Vivekananda College, Thakurpukur, Calcutta, out of which came the paper ‘The Practice of Bilingualism in Literary Writing: A Personal Perspective’, included in Indian Writing in English: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, ed. by Pranati Dutta Gupta and Susmita Ray, published by Vivekananda College in February 2006.
August 2004: Poetry reading at Lauderdale House, London
May 2004: Poetry reading at the Gate Library, London
January 2004: Poetry reading at Calder bookshop in London
November 2003: Poetry reading at the Stratford Library, London
July 2003: Poetry Weekend in Oxford
May 2003: 'Meet the Author', Bengali-Speaking Readers' Group, Leeds
March 2003: Tears in the Fence Poetry Festival, Dulwich College, London
September 2002: Speaker at The Tagore Centre UK Scottish Branch, Glasgow
February 2002: Paper read at International Seminar ('Globalisation of the Written Word: Translating Creative Diversity') organized by the National Book Trust, India, during the World Book Fair in New Delhi
January/February 2002: Poetry readings in Calcutta (Seagull Bookstore and Cima Gallery) and Santiniketan (Cheena-Bhavana)
February 2002: Protima Sen Memorial Lecture 2002, Jogamaya Devi College, Calcutta
February 2002: Guest of honour, evening of poetry recitations, Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi, Calcutta
January 2002: Performances of Mozart Chocolate, produced by Pratyasha, directed by Ashok Basu, in Calcutta (Gyanmanch) and Santiniketan (Natyaghar)
A Selection of Past Poetry Readings
June 2001: Mother Tongues – A Celebration of Non-English Language Poets on Tour, Oxford
December 2000: British Academy, London
October 2000: Wessex Poetry Festival
March 2000: Oxford
February 2000: British Council, Calcutta
January 2000: Nehru Centre, London
October 1999: Trinity College, Carmarthen (National Poetry Day)
October 1999: Wessex Poetry Festival
September 1999: Lauderdale House, London
December 1998: Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut, Heidelberg
November 1998: Washington DC, & other places, USA
1997: Budhsandhya Gathering, Calcutta
Some Other Past Events
6-8 July 2001:Participation in the North American Banga-Sammelan, Lowell, USA
September-October 2000: Tour of Night's Sunlight by Tidal Wave Theatre (directed by Gail Rosier), England and Wales
February 2000: Lecture, Calcutta University
February 2000: Talk, Calcutta Book Fair
June 1999: Paper read at Bengali Literary and Cultural Conference, Irving , Texas, USA
Autumn 1998: Lecture tour in the USA, covering Washington DC; University of Central Florida, Orlando; Indiana University at Bloomington; and Worcester State College (Mass)
July 1998: Participation in the North American Banga-Sammelan, Toronto, Canada
July 1997: Production of Raater Rode by Sangbarta in India, directed by Sunil Das
October 1994: Production of Raater Rode by Sangbarta in England, directed by Sunil Das
