Playwright creates characters, conversations and incidents that really took place in London and which had a profound effect on the development of the British Empire…
FOR many, the Empire remains a distant, contentious realm of history that holds little to no relevance to modern British society.
Its origins and development tell us little or nothing about modern Britain or the global world that confronts us all today.
However, a new walking tour which takes people on both a theatrical and physical journey – by walking around some important landmarks of Empire in the City of London and enacting the sort of conversations and experiences people might have had at the time – reveals just how this part of our capital and our trading history was shaped by Empire.
‘A London Lark Rising’ shows just how the East India Company – a private company formed by a group of traders in the City of London in 1599, set the template for trade, expansion, conquest – and the unfolding story of colonial enterprise.
Among the characters you will see in this show are Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Thomas Smythe, Sir Thomas Roe, William Shakespeare, Robert Clive and Mughal Emperor Jahangir.
Dr Anu Kumar Lazarus, is the writer behind ‘A London Lark Rising’ and joined forces with Lisa Honan CBE, to develop and produce this new show, which is now supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and will run until 2027.
Dr Kumar (Lazarus), a GP by day, and a professional playwright, was first stirred by both the statue to Robert Clive of India, which is in King Charles Street in Westminster and one dedicated to Shakespeare in Hackney, where she lives and works.
“The one to Clive made me furious and every time I passed the one of Shakespeare, I asked for inspiration,” Dr Kumar told www.asianculturevulture.com, talking about how ‘A London Lark Rising’ first formed in her imagination.
Combining both a career in medicine and as a professional playwright (see box below), she set about writing this as theatrical piece initially.
Inspired by the Quadrennial celebrations in 2023 marking 400 years of Shakespeare’s first printed folio, she embarked on weaving a family story together, sparked by the death of a fictitious male family member during covid – whose mixed (and hidden) heritage had his roots in colonial India; and the narrative was also built around the statues and local London landmarks that also told the story of colonialism.
She felt anger at seeing the Robert Clive (1725-1774) statue – he became venerated in the early part of the last century and was seen as one of the architects of Britain’s glorious Empire – his escapades at the time were not universally appreciated and in fact, even here in Britain, there was much criticism, distaste and disgust at his philosophy of conquest and plunder – he was a lone operator and had little formally to do with Britain or the monarch at the time but essentially worked for the independent East India Company.
In 1599, a group of traders had met in the City of London – they were looking for opportunities abroad and in 1600 Elizabeth I granted a charter to these traders to enjoy exclusive trading rights to the seas below South Africa.
Dr Kumar, who trained at Barts and the London Hospital in Whitechapel, E1 told acv: “It’s just an unbelievable story when you look at it like that – a group of traders and the whole history of colonialism embedded within that. They became the world’s most powerful company. They had an army.”
It started with trade and reached its apogee when then Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli made Queen Victoria Empress of India in 1876; and King George V and Queen Mary received Indian Maharajahs and Nawabs (Indian royalty) in a reception (Darbar) in Delhi in 1911 – both acts that symbolised the power Britain had over India at the time.
“If I did plaques, I’d do a plaque but I don’t do plaques,” explained Dr Kumar. “I’d started writing a big play about these siblings and them discovering their family history but after submitting it to the Royal Shakespeare Company (in a playwriting competition, it ran during those Quadrennial celebrations) and it not getting anywhere, and realising it was too big for many – with some 20 characters – I thought I’ll put it on the street.
“I made it in the street, so to speak. People don’t always read a lot of history – but this is history in front of their eyes in the locations where the Empire first began. And this is my turf. I’ve grown up around these streets – it doesn’t feel alien to me.”
She researched whether anyone was doing walking tours in the area and discovered Honan, who as a civil servant, had became The Governor of Saint Helena, before retiring. It is an island off the West Coast of Africa which was one of the East India’s Company’s first possessions and was run by British administrators, until quite recently.
“Lisa was brilliant, she was very amenable to making it a dramatised show which incorporated the history of Empire – before it was just someone walking around and pointing things out. We crowdfunded and put it on last year as a development project for the first time. It’s been very well received and many shows have already sold out this summer.”
In June, at the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) at the British Library, both co-director William Dalrymple, who as a popular historian has written much about the East India Company and its origins and JLF producer Sanjoy Roy, managing director of Teamwork Arts, saw ‘A London Lark Rising’ and extolled its virtues to those attending the festival in London, at the time.
Dr Kumar’s work has been produced by Kali Theatre in the past. Her most recent staged work was ‘Freedom’ produced by Kali for its War Season (centring women who write about War) in 2022 and the play was about Yazidi women caught up in the brutal conflict with Daesh. Her first play was the professional production ‘Waterfall’ in 1997 – which is a contemporary adaptation of Hindu scriptures that explain how the River Ganges came to have its spiritual significance.
www.asianculturevulture.com saw the walking tour in its draft form last autumn and now it has been redeveloped, re-cast and finessed – and there are summer shows of 90 minutes this Sunday (July 21) and then again on Saturday, September 7. (See Listings below for ticket information).
Listing
‘A London Lark Rising’ by Anu Kumar Lazarus – a Dramatised Walking Tour: The East India company: Architects of Empire, Brabant Court (90 minutes)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-dramatised-walking-tour-the-east-india-company-architects-of-empire-tickets-935451640037?
Dr Anu Kumar Lazarus – http://www.sensorinet.com
