Interview: 'Dickens' Characters Are Timeless': Tanika Gupta And Pooja Ghai on Colonialism, Racism and Relevance in Adapting GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Back in 2011 playwright Tanika Gupta staged her adaptation of Great Expectations. 12 years later she has re-worked the script, shifted the time frame and collaborated with the Artistic Director of Tamasha Pooja Ghai. Pooja played Mrs Gargery in the original, and who is now directing this new version for the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

Why are Tanika and Pooja both keen to revisit this adaptation? Unfinished business. 

BroadwayWorld spoke to Tanika and Pooja about adapting this Charles Dickens classic with a twist, ahead of the show opening on in September, about colonialism, Dickens' social conscience and 

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Pooja, you were involved in the 2011 run of this production when it was directed by Nikolai Foster. What was it like to work on it then and what brought you back?

I played Mrs Gargary in Tanika’s 2011 production. As an actor it was both amazing and eye-opening to be in a play that brought a colonial lens on Dickens’ story and didn’t shy away from the darker side of Britain and India’s history. It was a production I was proud to be a part of. It was so rare to see stories of our colonial histories reflected on our stages.

So, now in 2023 to be asked to direct this new adaptation meant I could explore Tanika’s play through my vision as a director in collaboration with her and a fantastic creative team. What a gift. I couldn’t wait to get started!

And what was the impetus for reviving this work? 

The play was programmed as part of Roy Alexander Weise and Bryony Shanon’s
season at The Manchester Royal Exchange. Roy called and asked me to direct the play. I was elated. Tanika and I have a collaborated before, on Lions and Tigers (Shakespeare's Globe, 2017) and more recently on The Empress (RSC, 2023), so I jumped at the chance to do it again. 
 
Tanika, has the change of director since its 2011 run changed how you view this play? Have you updated any of the scenes due to the passing of time or Pooja's input?

I have updated and changed the script in discussion with Pooja and the head of new work at the Royal Exchange. As a writer, one develops one's skills and I felt I wanted to make the adaptation sharper and more focussed on Pipli’s journey and self-identity. For example: Malik (Magwitch)is an African/Indian from the Siddhi community and all the Indian characters have been renamed with Indian names.

We also talked about the staging at the Royal Exchange which is in the round which changes the way the scenes flow into each other. Pooja and I have collaborated a few times now (most recently, on my play The Empress at the RSC). As a director, from the global majority, she implicitly understands my point of view and the creative vision is further supported by the designer Rosa Maggiora who works her magic with the set and
costume designs.
 
How does this novel and/or this play speak to you and your own life experiences?

Tanika: I don’t consciously write about my own life experiences. As a writer, I am interested in creating stories and characters which have a more universal resonance. As a huge admirer of the original novel, my adaptation celebrates Dickens but changes the focus by setting the adaptation in India at the turn of the century.

Ultimately, one cannot deny how recognisable the story is of - rags to riches to rags again and of the trials and tribulations of a young person trying to rise above their impoverished background to find their place in the world. 

Pooja: I had read it in my younger years and returned to it again when I was cast in
Tanika’s 2011 production. Dickens’ characters are timeless and feel as relevant today as
they were at the time he was writing. His characters are full of wit, resilience, pain and love. He writes with a social conscience that means his storytelling resonates through time. Tanika shines a colonial lens on Dickens' story reframing and interrogating the characters and their experiences through the prism of the colonised and coloniser.

During the British Raj, my grandparents left India and migrated to Kenya. My parents, my
sisters and I were born in Kenya. Both India and Kenya were under British colonial rule. Both the novel and the play draw parallels to the experiences of myself and generations of my family.

Tanika, this version is set in 1903, soon after a longstanding Queen has died and just ahead of a period of major social and political upheaval. Why led you to choose that particular time and place?

I have always been fascinated by Indian/British history, particularly from the time that Dickens was writing in the nineteenth century. I wanted to set the adaptation in India at the time of the first partition of Bengal in 1905 which galvanised Bengali and Indians to fight for independence.

Miss Havisham in my adaptation represents colonial Britain – the dying embers of it – her inability to ‘let go’ of the memory of the lover who jilted her so cruelly, her arrogance, her manipulation of Estella and Pipli and her vulnerability are all an allegory for British rule. But we still feel empathy for her and she does change!
 
There have many (many) takes on this classic Dickens novel across stage, TV and
film. Other than the change of location and year, what do you feel makes this interpretation stand out? 

Pooja: This new adaptation is set during the 1905 partition of Bengal – the motive of which, was ‘Divide and Rule’ - led by Lord Curzon. Bengal was partitioned on religious lines. Muslim and Hindu and geographically between East and West Bengal. This partition galvanised the fight for independence amongst the Bengalis and Indians and was the pre-cursor to the horrors that ensued in the 1947 partition of India.

Like Tanika, Miss Havisham to me represents colonial Britain as it heads to its descent. Havisham refused to let go of the pain and humiliation of being left at the altar so cruelly; her treatment of Estella and Pipli is a metaphor for the British rule in India.

Finally, how do you balance being faithful to the economic and social themes of the
original novel - some of which may seem dated or obsolete in 2023 - with making this work relevant to a modern audience?

Tanika: Actually, the social and economic themes of the novel absolutely are still very relevant today and make this work for a contemporary audience. There is still poverty and people are struggling economically in Britain at the moment.

Racism, classism and colourism still exists and the penal system still brutalises and demonises the vulnerable, particularly black people. This is the beauty of Dickens’ characters and writing – the issues are still very relevant over one hundred and sixty years on.

Great Expectations runs at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre from 8 September – 7 October.

Photo Credits: Oliver May & Bettina Adela

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