Sudha Bhuchar Brings EVENING CONVERSATIONS to the Soho Theatre

Middle class, middle aged multicultural mother of millennial sons, Sudha lives a "squeezed middle" life in Wimbledon. As she navigates her career, family and returning to India as a NRI (Non-Resident Indian), she is prompted to investigate her own sense of home and her place in the world.

Evening Conversations is a warm-hearted monologue inspired by Sudha's banter with her dual-heritage (Pakistani/East African Indian) millennial sons who have grown up in leafy Wimbledon while her life has spanned three continents. She invites her boys to 'crack open a cold one' and share their views on life. Will her fiercely British sons see their heritage as a place of strength or an unwelcome inheritance?

Being cooped up together during the pandemic may have dampened their spirits, but it certainly sharpened their tongues. Shots are fired in the quick-fire exchanges between mother and sons, forcing Sudha to take stock.

Evening Conversations is part of a collection of work, written by Sudha Bhuchar and produced by her acclaimed theatre company Bhuchar Boulevard, that explores aspects of family life, friendship, transition, grief, identity, and connection. These intimate works include Touchstone Tales, an exploration of the theme of 'touch' with communities in Bury Park Luton and the forthcoming Artichoke Hearts, an adaptation of Sita Brahmachari's award-winning multicultural coming of age novel. Sudha's evolving practice of capturing verbatim conversations as a journey into writing also informed the moving evocation of pandemic loss, love and resilience, Final Farewell, which premiered at Tara Theatre last year and has since played at Brighton Fringe and, this September, at Queens Theatre Hornchurch and Greenwich and Docklands festival.

An award-winning actor/playwright, Sudha Bhuchar, established BHUCHAR BOULEVARD, to produce heartfelt, memorable theatre for multiple and diverse audiences by holding up a mirror to our common humanity. Its inaugural show, Child of the Divide, about the Partition of India seen through the eyes of children, was shortlisted for the Eastern Eye, Arts & Cultural Award and won Best Stage Production at the Asian Media Awards, 2018. Sudha received the Tongues on Fire Flame award 2018 for her contribution to Stage and Television.

Theatre credits include: The Village (Theatre Royal Stratford East, 2018) Lions and Tigers (Globe Theatre, 2017) and Khandan (Royal Court/Birmingham Rep, 2014).

Sudha is the writer of Final Farewell (Tara Theatre 2021), a reflective and collaborative audio promenade performance honouring the losses people have experienced during Covid which is touring the UK in outdoor festivals.

Sudha appears in Riz Ahmed's The Long Goodbye, the 'Best Live Action' Oscar winning short film directed by Aneil Karia and in Riz's Mogul Mowgli directed by Bassam Tariq. Other credits include Disney's Mary Poppins Returns, Ben Wheatley's Happy New Year Colin Burstead, After Love by Aleem Khan and Into Dust by Orlando Von Einsiedel. She recently appeared on television in Rules of the Game (a BBC thriller about toxic work politics) and a short film, Trinity directed by Hetain Patel.

Sudha along with her colleague Kristine Landon-Smith, is the co-founder of the ground-breaking theatre company TAMASHA, and their landmark work includes the adaptation of Rohinton Mistry's novel, A Fine Balance &the award-winning musical Fourteen Songs Two Weddings and a Funeral. The duo were received Eastern Eye's ACTA award 2019 for their significant contribution to the Arts.

During Sudha and Kristine's joint tenure at Tamasha, many productions enjoyed successful runs and remounts at Soho- All I want is a British passport, The Trouble With Asian Men, Blood and Ryman and the Sheikh. Sudha is thrilled to be warmly welcomed back here with Evening Conversations.

To post a comment, you must register and login.