For over four decades, Tara Theatre has supported the emergence of generations of South Asian performers, writers, directors, musicians and choreographers, and toured extensively both nationally and internationally. Under Artistic Director Abdul Shayek’s leadership Tara Theatre is continuing this work and more, creating innovative, politically charged theatre harnessing the power of co-creation. We speak to him about his role and the play Silence, which tells the stories of survivors of partition and commemorates 2022 being 75 years since the historic event. You can read more about the play and our review of it here.

BAWM: What's been your personal history with the theatre?

Abdul: So it was two years ago, I was appointed. Prior to it, I didn't really have a huge history with Tara, I've seen a couple of shows but I hadn't done any work with the company. And I guess I hadn't been in London for a while as well. I'd been outside of London: 10 years I spent in Cardiff. There wasn't a massive connection from a directing point of view, or as a young freelance artist when I was living in London and didn't really do a lot with Tara at the time. So this was all quite unique and new and interesting because a big question for me was why? Why didn’t I have more connection with Tyra was a really important question that I was asking when I was considering the role. And I guess, a part of that is also to do with, in the theatre world, how South Asian stories and work is presented. And I think there is an element of drawing in our connection to India quite regularly, or Pakistan or Bangladesh or home, you know, the idea of home and a diaspora always yearning for this home, that's this exotic size, and colourful and beautiful which is the British version of that. And I think, for me, it was about shifting that and going well, actually, what does it really mean to be South Asian in the UK? What does it mean to be working class as Asian? Growing up on benefits? And what does it all mean? Because we all have very different perspectives and realities. And as opposed to yearning and trying to look towards a place that's no longer home. This is actually home. And then I think that was really important. So that's the shift I wanted to create with Tara, because I felt like Tara wasn't doing enough of that. And maybe that's why I hadn't connected in the same way that I was with other companies.

BAWM: And have you found so far that people have responded positively to this?

Abdul: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think we've gotten a lot of excitement and support from a range of people, Silence has just had its reviews come out, and the reviews have kind of been mixed. There's a version of the show, which is overplayed, exaggerated and painted as victims of this massive injustice. And you know, our parents, our grandparents were victims of this injustice but equally they were resilient people. They came to this country, they dealt with the racism that was here and they still built amazing lives themselves. And they've given people like you and me the opportunity to do what we are doing now. Because they created that initial level of security and support and they did that on the basis that they had to sacrifice their time and their needs. And that shows me not victims, but really resilient people who go out, who put themselves second and put their kids and their their communities first, which is the way that we framed Silence. I've seen too much work, where we are the victims, or we are the laughter You know, South Asians are either comedy or receive a victimhood, and, can't have anything in between. And that's why the way we frame silence in a very documentary--drama style. It's very much about, well, this is a trauma I went through but now I've built a life that's different. Some people have dealt with those situations and some people are still waking up with nightmares but that doesn't mean that that's dictated all of the rest of their lives. There's a focus, I think, with people of colour on trauma, and we have to overplay it, and exaggerate and make it this huge thing that holds us back. And it doesn't. And that's the whole point. We find ways to deliver, we find ways to move on and live our lives.

BAWM: It's really cool that you feel that you can experiment in that way but As the first theatre in the UK that is ethnically-diverse led, the Tara Theatre has such a storied history so what kind of pressure or responsibilities do you feel as Artistic Director for?

Abdul: I mean, I feel like I have a responsibility but I'm an artist and I'm going to experiment. We've been talking about diversity for such a long time and if we're going through this period where we say, right, we need to diversify a sector, we now need to put our money where our mouth is. It's not just about letting these people into our spaces and telling the story. It's not just about Donmar (theatre) and Tara working together to tell the story. I mean, that's great but it's also about going, what do these companies want? What do these diverse lead companies want? Well, diverse led companies and diverse artists want to have the same resources and space and time as their white counterparts to experiment and play. If you want us to become or if you want to have a really interesting sector and really interesting work coming through, then I think we need to afford people that time and space. And I think what I've been saying a lot of is, Tara theatre absolutely should be a space for people to come in and experiment and play and test and try and when things go wrong, it's not the end of the world. I mean, I put a lot of pressure on myself only because that's just who I am but equally, I think, for artists who are coming into our space we need to make sure that they feel supported. That's the only way we're going to find new forms that serve the stories that we want to tell in the way that we want to tell them. Otherwise, we are just stuck in tropes and stereotypes.

BAWM: Silence is also deeply painful. What was the experience of putting that show together?

Abdul: It was hard. It was really hard. It was a challenge because we have content that was really challenging and difficult to work with and so there was a lot of tears and a lot of care that we had to put into making sure everyone felt supported and looked after. Personally, it was it was really tough at times because I lost my mum a year ago. And so the idea of loss and losing our elders was very present in my life. So that was hard at times. It was just moments of listening to the horrors that people went through and just going wow, you know, this this is something that we just never know, we never found out about and actually it's really challenging. But I think the cast and the team generally everyone involved was really sensitive to to these issues and really worked in a in a really supportive way and made sure we made sure everyone felt supported and looked after. So that was fine.

BAWM: That's good. And you had some stories from survivors. How did you go about sourcing those?

Abdul: Well, we took it from Kavita Poori’s book Participant Voices. Kavita did that hard work for us And she has a real connection to this to this piece because of that, because it's, it's a very it's a piece that a lot of has a real connection for her and how she went out and collected these stories from all these people and fought for? Yeah, it's a piece that absolutely has. Yes, she she did the hard work. If we had to go out and also collect stories, I think it would have been much harder, much, much harder.

BAWM: So what do you have the audience takes away from the show?

Abdul: A bit of an education of what happened and understanding the reality of that moment and hope that they get to also see that there wasn't just killings and hurting each other, there was also kindness, acts of bravery and kindness. And beyond all of that, I guess what I really want them to see and understand is that these people were extremely brave, both at the time, and then afterwards as well, that resilience, bravery to keep silent and not to place the weight of all of that on their children's shoulders. I mean, we have to respect that. You have to respect that and give them the views. There's a lot of stereotypes that are quite negative about our parents generation, our grandparents generation, hopefully, people now will go yeah, that man who runs my corner shop, he's probably got a story of real trauma there sat behind it. But that in itself is a strength to be able to keep smiling and keep a smile on your face every day, and serve people. Do what you need to do on a daily basis and not let that trauma ruin your life. That in itself is an amazing element of inner strength. So I guess I just want people to also understand the strength that sits at the heart of our community.

BAWM: It definitely does. Now we're still somewhat in the pandemic and we're looking at a very harsh winter with the high cost of living. What kind of a role do you believe theatre still plays in our lives at such a time?

Abdul: I think they allow us to escape. They allow us to also understand and see what has come before when they were where we are today and how that makes everyone feel and what that does for everybody. And I think we have to remember theatre is also a political tool when we need to find ways to make sure people's voices are being heard. And yes, in this day and age, we have social media. But I think theatre still is an important tool to bring people together in the same space at the same time. I remember someone once described it almost like going to church or going to the mosque or going to the temple that kind of coming together of people who share similar ideas, similar thoughts, who then get energised by seeing something live in a space and taking that energy back out into the world, and taking that positivity or taking that message and trying to get others to listen to it.

BAWM: What are you most proud of with Tara to date?

Abdul: I think I'm most proud of our shift in in direction and shift in energy. I think it's really brilliant that we've managed to make that shift happen so quickly. I think we are really proud of the range of projects that we're doing for such a small company. We've got international projects, we've got national projects, local projects, and the range of work we're doing, from community engagement, right through to the kind of production side of things, we are really firing on all cylinders, and we're working in a really interesting way. And we're challenging. And that's a tricky space for a lot of people. And lots of people struggle with being challenged, and I feel like we are challenging. And it will land. You don't know how much something will resonate with someone when it does land, and then when you impact people even a little bit that's still a huge swing, you know, either way. Some will love it, some won’t and that's okay. As in life, not every experiment works. But the most important and crucial thing is, we have to be afforded that space to go again, and try again and test new things and try new things. And we will because I think we embody a level of resilience, resilience that comes from who our parents and our forefathers were. The company has in the past, been really resilient and we will continue to be.