Bird Bites: South Asian Summer; Your Way, My Way ; and Child of the Divide

It’s South Asian Heritage Month (SAHM) and there’s a lot of both community events and drama, focusing on one of the most tumultuous periods of recent history and its fallout but it isn’t all gloom, far from it…

South Asian Summer – hot entertainment

AS TEMPERATURES continue to climb, the phrase “hotter than July” feels especially apt as a South Asian artistic summer arrives at Theatre Royal Stratford East in London.
Billed as a South Asian Summer, it runs until July 18, and features a range of arts and creative shows including, Brown Sauce Comedy club (July 15), the play,  ‘Blue Mist’  (July 8-14) and ‘Heeramandi’, (July 18),  a British Asian cabaret evoking the courtesan culture of Lahore, celebrating art, desire and resistance.
The special season started last night (July 8) with the play, ‘Kanpur: 1857‘ about the Indian uprising against British forces. Based on historical events, this new play comically satirises contemporary conflicts around gender, colonial violence, and making art in times of crisis. Its original production premiered in Edinburgh in 2025, picking up the Scotsman First Fringe. it returns to the fringe again – running from August 5-16 (see details below).

South Asian Summer – Theatre Royal Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, Stratford, London E15 1BN
https://www.stratfordeast.com/whats-on/south-asian-summer/

Kanpur: 1857 (Edinburgh Fringe 2026)
https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/kanpur-1857

Lead picture: Blue Mist by ©Ali Wright

Your Way, My Way  – Cross Cultural love

THIS is based a true love story…
‘Humare Tumare‘ (‘Your Wy, My Way‘) is an original independent audio drama telling the story of Iftikhar and Surjeet, whose paths crossed from either side of the India-Pakistan border.
Witten by Sharmila Chauhan (‘The Husbands‘) and directed by Jatinder Verma (founder of Tara Arts), it charts the experiences of this trailblazing couple who were involved in the arts and cultural milieu of 1960s London and onwards.  
The desire for representation and need to tell ‘our own stories’ is so strong that it has led their son, Iqbal Husain, Regional Community Partnerships Manager at The National Archives, to commission a drama about his parents.   
As a dual heritage child – he wants his family story to be seen in all its complexity and nuance. The audio drama begins in London 1975 when a young couple embark on a road trip to Pakistan with their 10-year old son to reconnect with family in pre-partition India.  
With sound design by the acclaimed Farokh Soltani, the play features extracts of original recordings of the musical couple performing live. 
Produced by Fin Kennedy of Applied Stories, the premiere will take place at Tara Theatre Earlsfield, south London this Saturday (July 11). Audiences will gather together for a live listening event followed by a Q&A with the creative team about the challenges and responsibilities of turning lived experience into drama. 

‘Humane Tamara’ – 3pm, Saturday, July 11, at Tara Theatre, 366 Garratt Lane, London SW18 4 ES
Tickets/more info: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/appliedstories/2215856 

Child of the Divide  – Award winning play is back

TALKING about the complexity of dual heritage children of India-Pakistan, look no further than Sudha Bhuchar’s acclaimed play, ‘Child of the Divide’, which will have a public reading as part of Wandsworth South Asian Heritage month.  
‘Child of the Divide’ is an award winning play set during the Partition of India exploring loss, identity and belonging, as seen through the eyes of a child and is inspired by Bhisham Sahni’s short story ‘Pali’. 
It is the summer of 1947 and 16 million people are on the move between India and the newly-formed Pakistan. Amid the violent political upheaval, young Pali’s fingers slip from his father’s hand, and his destiny changes forever. 
Taken in by a Muslim family, he is given a new name, a new faith and a new life. But when his real father returns to claim him, Pali must decide who he is: the Hindu boy he was born to be, or the Muslim boy he has become, or simply a child of the divide. 
‘Child of the Divide‘ is presented as part of theatre company, Bhuchar Boulevard’s Retracing Our Footsteps project. This aims to amplify knowledge of plays from the South Asian canon that have made a significant contribution to the UK cultural landscape. Originally premiered in 2006, the show was performed in 2017 and won the Asian Media Award for Best Stage Production (2018).  
This play reading unites the cast of the 2017 production and will be accompanied by live music by composer Arun Ghosh & there is a post-show Q&A 
The month ends with South Asian poetry & song, headlined by Rishi Dastidar and Gita Ralleigh, with Suman Gujral, Gurmeet Kaur, Koushik Banerjea, Anita Pati, Renu Gidoomal.

Tickets/more info: ‘ Child of the Divide’, 5.30pm-8.30pm, July 16, R.O.S.E Community Clubroom, 22 Ascalon Street, Nine Elms, London SW8 4NN
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1992316027871?aff=oddtdtcreator 

Other events at SAHM Wandsworth
https://welcometowandsworth.com/whats-on/event/#top_filter=5431&page=1&view=list