As Long as the Punters Enjoy It

Abstract

Tanika Gupta is one of the most prolific and outstanding new writers in contemporary British theatre. Born in Chiswick in 1965, she is a bilingual British Bengali who – after reading modern history at Oxford University – began her career in 1991, when her Radio 4 play, Asha, was part of the BBC Young Playwrights Festival. In 1995, her BBC film, The Rhythm of Raz, was nominated for a Children's BAFTA and the following year her film Bideshi won an award at the Bombay Short Film Festival. Meanwhile, although she made a living writing for Grange Hill and EastEnders, her play Voices on the Wind was being developed and, in 1996–98, she was Writer-in-Residence at the Soho Theatre. In 1997, A River Sutra was staged at Three Mills Island, London, and Skeleton at the Soho Theatre. In 1998, Flight, her BBC2 screenplay, won an EMMA. The Waiting Room (2000), staged by the National, won the John Whiting Award, and was followed by Sanctuary (National) and Inside Out, toured by Clean Break (both 2002). In 2003, Gupta's Fragile Land opened the new Hampstead Theatre's education space, her Asian version of Hobson's Choice was staged at the Young Vic, and she won the Asian Woman of Achievement Award. Later, she had further success with her campaigning play about the Zahid Mubarek case, Gladiator Games (Sheffield Crucible, 2005), and Sugar Mummies (Royal Court, 2006). A year later came a play for the National Youth Theatre, White Boy (Soho). What follows is an edited transcript of Aleks Sierz's ‘In Conversation with Tanika Gupta’, part of the ‘Universal Voices’ festival held at Rose Bruford College, Sidcup, Kent, in April 2007, organized by Nesta Jones.