Tara Theatre Announces 40th Anniversary Season Lineup

Following a 2016 which saw Tara Arts move into its award-winning new building and Artistic Director Jatinder Verma awarded the MBE, Tara Theatre launch a Spring season featuring an eclectic mix of music, theatre, dance and comedy. 2017 will see Tara celebrate two milestone anniversaries - the 70th anniversary of India and Pakistan's independence, which will be marked with 70 events over the course of the year under the banner #tara7070, and Tara's own 40th anniversary.

Highlights of the Spring theatre programme include the premiere of Chigger Foot Boys, a new play from Patricia Cumper which looks at the lives of Jamaicans who fought in World War One, drawing on real life events (22 Feb - 11 Mar). The season also includes She Called Me Mother, which stars Cathy Tyson as a homeless woman begging in a London station. It comes to Tara following a successful UK tour in 2015. Poet and performer Inua Ellams will bring his Evening with an Immigrant to Tara Theatre on 24-25 March.

Music highlights will include a one-off evening with Award-winning musician Nitin Sawhney (India and Me, 28 Jan) and an evening of music and poetry exploring the work of celebrated Sufi poet Rumi (Listen to the Reed, 27 Jan). Comedy returns to Tara Theatre in the form of a special evening with showbiz favourite Barry Cryer and his son Bob Cryer (29 Jan).

During Spring, the first Tara #tara7070 events will take place, celebrating the 70th anniversary of India and Pakistan's independence from the British Empire. Covering music, theatre, dance and spoken work, 70 events over the course of the year will look at how the Indian sub-continent has shaped Britain's destiny, as much as Britain shaped modern India and Pakistan's and illuminate the connections between the three countries. These events are marked in listings using the #Tara7070

"I am delighted some of the most exciting artists and entertainers in Britain today will present our first Spring in the new Tara Theatre. From Nitin Sawhney to Inua Ellams, comic maestro Barry Cryer to new theatre companies Mandala and Strongback to fabulous dance from Natalia Hildner.and the submlime poetry of Rumi, this Spring marks a fitting start to our 40th year. I look forward to welcoming audiences to evenings of delight and wonder at Tara." Jatinder Verma

Tara Arts are established as one of the UK's foremost creators of cross-cultural theatre. Their work, which consists of both new writing and reimagined classics, seeks to make imaginative connections across communities, to help foster a global sensibility from their own locality. The company was founded in 1977 by Artistic Director Jatinder Verma, along with Sunil Saggar, Ovais Kadri, Praveen Bahl & Vijay Shaunak. Tara Theatre, opened in September 2016, has been awarded Project Design of the Year at the London Construction Awards, and has been nominated for both Theatre Building of the year and Sustainability in The Stage awards 2017.

For more about Tara, follow on Twitter @Tara_Arts | #TaraTheatre | #Tara7070 or go to www.tara-arts.com.

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2017 SEASON:
At Tara Theatre, London, 356 Garratt Lane, London, SW18 4ES. Box Office: www.tara-arts.com | 020 8333 4457.

Urban Zikr 25th January, 7.30pm | From £15.50

A scintillating evening of Kathak dance and music. Classical Kathak dancer Natalia Hildner accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Milad Yousofi on the Afghani Rubab evoke the Sublime (Zikr) and Devotion (Bhakti) with an exciting evening of fusion dance. #tara7070

Running time: 90 minutes | Suitable for ages: 10+

Listen to the Reed: Rumi Through Words and Music 27th January, 7.30pm | £15.50

Ismena Collective presents the work of the 13th century Sufi mystic poet, Jalal al-din Rumi, who has a message for all of us. In 'Listen to the Reed' we go in search of that message through both his achingly beautiful poetry and music from East and West for oud, oboe and cello. Signs and sparks, shocks and lightbeams, laughter and illuminations! #tara7070

Running time: 90 | Suitable for ages: 10+

India and Me by Nitin Sawhney 28th January, 7.30pm | £30

"India and Me" is an insight into Nitin's extraordinarily varied experiences. From coincidences that are barely explicable by conventional western thought or logic, to an array of events which include working with some of the world's most famous artists, meetings with inspiring celebrities and politicians and a host of personal memories and stories from an award-winning career that spans 28 years in the music industry. All the above will be delivered through Sawhney's unique prism, performance and perspective of music as a universal Language. Join us for a memorable and intimate evening. #tara7070

Running time: 2 hours including interval | Suitable for ages: 12+

An Audience with Bob and Barry Cryer 29th January, 5pm | From £21.50

Legendary comedy writer Barry Cryer, together with his son, actor-writer Bob Cryer, is creating Hercule Parrot's Cagebook which is probably the most important and comprehensive collection of parrot jokes ever assembled... This is your opportunity to meet Barry and Bob, have a little of their partnership revealed, hear anecdotes and stories and a beak preview into their latest venture. Comedy is back at Tara!

Running time: 90 mins including interval | Suitable for ages: all

Nightlight 1st - 5th February, 7.30pm | From £15.50

Mandala Theatre Company present a topical new play by South African playwright Nadia Davids. Somewhere in England two teenage asylum seekers, fearing deportation, hide out in an abandoned factory. As the cold night unfolds, they imagine their future and tell each other about their past.

Running time: 80 minutes no interval | Suitable for ages: 13+

She Called Me Mother 7th - 11th February, 7.30pm and 3pm | From £15.50

Pitch Lake Productions with Tara Arts for Black Theatre Live present a new play starring Cathy Tyson & Chereen Buckley. Evangeline is waiting; she has been waiting a long time. She waits for the BLACK SWAN to glide through the station and show her a little warmth and kindness. She waits for a ticket home to Trinidad, the sun, the mango trees, and the street vendors selling curry. She waits for Shirley the daughter she let walk away all those years ago.

Running time: 2 hours 15 mins | Suitable for ages: 14+

Chiggerfoot Boys 22nd February - 11th March, 7.30pm and 2.30pm | From £15.50

An intoxicating cocktail of love, duty, death and dominoes. A new play by Patricia Cumper, produced by Strongback Productions, based on true events in the lives of Jamaicans who fought in World War One. Set amid the banter in a rum bar near Kingston Harbour, four young men tell their stories of death and glory as the end of the British Empire looms.

Running time: two hours including interval | Suitable for ages: 14+ | #ChiggerFootBoys

An Evening with an Immigrant 24th - 25th March, 7.30pm | From £15.50

Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother in what is now considered by many to be Boko Haram territory, in 1996 award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams left Nigeria for England aged 12, moved to Ireland for three years, before returning to London and starting work as a writer and graphic designer. Littered with poems, stories and anecdotes, Inua will tell his ridiculous, fantastic, poignant immigrant-story of escaping fundamentalist Islam, directing an arts festival at his college in Dublin, performing solo shows at the National Theatre, and drinking wine with the Queen of England, all the while without a country to belong to or place to call home.

Running time: 60 minutes | Suitable for ages: 15+

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