Bhuchar Boulevard Presents DECOLONISATION: NOT JUST A BUZZWORD...

Since the Black Lives Matter movement gained greater prominence following the death of George Floyd this Summer, the debate around the need to decolonise public spaces, the curriculum and institutional memory has become even louder. Now acclaimed theatre company Bhuchar Boulevard revisits its association with SOAS to present a work of documentary theatre presenting individual testimonies around why this is not just a political initiative. For many it is personal.

Last year, Bhuchar Boulevard was invited for a residency at SOAS to examine individual and institutional responses to decolonisation through a new piece of work that looked at how SOAS is challenging its founding imperial purpose and delivering its vision to decolonise the education sector.

Decolonisation: not just a buzzword... a headphone verbatim show emerged from capturing campus conversations that wove the compelling narratives shared by interviewees and recorded by the creative team.

The result is a social portrait documentary theatre exploring some of the urgent questions of our time through actor centred naturalistic and realistic performances presenting a combination of authenticity and mischief to the audience in order to 'speak truth to power'.

This show is now part of the inaugural virtual SOAS Festival of Ideas 2020: Decolonising Knowledge and will be presented online followed by a post-show discussion with invited panellists on 24th October from 5-7pm.

Students on global campuses have demanded the 'decolonising' of the physical space, the curriculum and institutional memory in a fight against intersectional oppression. Behind the sensational headlines lie deeply personal and political lived experiences that go beyond the call to remove statues, repatriate artefacts and diversify reading lists.

Verbatim theatre brings to the stage compelling stories into one conversation and invites us to listen deeply. Exploring themes that range from representation, reparation to reflexivity in pedagogy, the voices from the SOAS community are striving for transformative action.

At a time when society is more fractured than ever, this is an insightful and timely examination of the threads that connect us and the urgent need to unravel them and come together.

Collaborating artists: Sudha Bhuchar, Suman Bhuchar, Neela Doležalová & Kristine Landon-Smith

Directed by Kristine Landon-Smith

Cast: Tunji Falana, Bartel Jespers, Sophie Khan Levy, Anna-Maria Nabirye, Anna Nguyen, Josephine Starte and Ragevan Vasan.

Sudha Bhuchar - artistic director of Bhuchar Boulevard says, "The brutal murder of George Floyd and the outpouring of grief, anger and sadness has impacted all people of colour like me viscerally. Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and their struggle for justice. This collaboration with SOAS University is timely and prescient in the ongoing conversation around representation and equality, shared/contested histories, and debates around the role of statues. We hope it will encourage deeper and more nuanced dialogue, beyond the binaries of Black and White."

Dr. Meera Sabratnam, Senior Lecturer in International Relations says, "I also see it connected to a public conversation in Britain about who we are, what we are about - there are increasingly contested ideas of what the legacy of Empire is all about, and who it benefited, what we should take from it, and even What does it mean to think about Britain as a nation state".

Edward Simpson, Director, SOAS South Asia Institute, Professor of Social Anthropology says, "I was keen for you to think about how this conversation places us within the wider world. Encouraging conversations out in the corridors, between constituencies of people who perhaps don't speak to one another, either because they don't have access or because they don't want to speak to one another, or they don't know they can speak to one another".

Learn more at https://www.soas.ac.uk/south-asia-institute/events/24oct2020-decolonisation-not-just-a-buzz-word.html

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