Theatre
King Troll (The Fawn) - New Diorama/Kali Theatre
Photography by Felix Pilgrim, Design by Guy SandersFinalist for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Playwriting, King Troll (The Fawn) is a dark and otherworldly thriller about two South Asian sisters, desperate to escape the border regime without losing their humanity. Is that even possible on this island? A dystopian exploration of migrant experiences in all their complexity.
Riya and Nikita navigate the increasingly authoritarian island where they live in wildly different ways. Insecure, stateless, both desperate for somewhere to call ‘home’.
Riya is offered the chance to create an advocate in the form of a homunculus, or fawn, and sees a chance to elevate herself above the cruelty meted out to others. Nikita tries to keep her saviour complex in check as she negotiates the challenges and hypocrisy of the third sector, where she supports migrant teenagers. Her deep connection with one client forces her to confront the limitations of her work.
King Troll is about the troll that lives within all of us - whispering ‘me, not us’, and definitely ‘me’ first.
Photo by Helen Murray★★★★★ "...an awesome and unsettling experience." Time Out
★★★★★ "...an expertly executed political thriller." Theatre and Tonic
★★★★ "Nerves jangle from the first moment, and never get a chance to calm during this cracking show that nudges activist drama into atavistic horror.” The Guardian
★★★★ "Sonali Bhattacharyya’s new play is a brilliant parable for our times, combining impish humour with social fury." The Stage
The Little Mermaid - Bristol Old Vic
Artwork: Steph Pyne | Photo Richard Lakos★★★★★ "Sonali Bhattacharyya, fresh off the recent success of her play King Troll (The Fawn), reframes the premise, refreshing it for 21st-century environmental sensibilities and an enlightened feminist perspective. The wonder of Bhattacharyya’s nimble, joke-stuffed writing is that it manages to accommodate this shift without compromising the thematic core of Andersen’s original." The Times
★★★★★ "...does everything an Xmas production should do and much more." Morning Star
★★★★★ "The re-imagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid is a blend of joy, warmth, and humour, with a poignant and artfully narrated story." Bristol Live
The Little Mermaid loves swimming, dancing and spending time with her friends. She might be the last mermaid in the Southern Waters, but it's still her home and the other sea creatures are family.
So when the sea starts to get warmer – the kelp wilting, the coral fading – she realises she has to act. The mermaid vows to protect their home and it seems a caring young man trying to restore the reef is just the person to help.
But how much is she willing to sacrifice to find answers on land? Can her new friend really be trusted to help? And what oily monsters lurk in the shadows?
Liberation Squares - Fifth Word/Nottingham Playhouse/Brixton House
Photography by Mathushaa SagthidasThree teenage girls forge an unlikely friendship, beatboxing, dancing, and building their social media empires. But they undergo a political awakening when they realise that what you say – even what you think – is viewed very differently depending on who you are.
When they find themselves the target of the state surveillance ‘Prevent’ programme, they have to fight back. In an era when dissent is being criminalised, what does it take to speak up?
Liberation Squares is a riotous new comedy told through the technicolour lens of three teenage girls. Inspired by graphic novels, hip hop, pop culture and real-world activists. Starring Asha Hassan (Bad Education, BBC 3), Vaneeka Dadhria (Cyrano de Bergerac, West End), and Halema Hussain (The Father and the Assassin, National Theatre) and directed by Milli Bhatia, who I'm excited to be collaborating with again after Chasing Hares, Young Vic.
★★★★ "Liberation Squares is a comedic spin on censorship and when reality of what is happening comes to light, it pulls you in. The play closed to a standing ovation." A Youngish Perspective
★★★★ "Bhattacharyya’s portrayal of a clampdown on protesting, and a government investing its energies in a Minority Report-style bid to pre-empt crime, hits on something worryingly prescient at a time when our rights are under threat. It’s a pressing topic, compellingly explored." The Stage
Arabian Nights - Bristol Old Vic
A daring heroine, captivating songs, and a timeless story of wonder and hope ✨
Schere has the quickest wits, greatest courage and most marvellous stories. Now she plans to liberate every young woman in the Kingdom from the greedy, tyrannical King. All through the power of her storytelling. But can she really do this alone? And is the first person she has to turn to really her annoying younger sister?
Together, they light up the Kingdom with magic, excitement, unity and hope in the festive season.
"Arabian Nights at the Old Vic is visually stunning, funny... an absolute delight" - Bristol Post
Artwork: Rebecca PittThe Jungle Book - Chichester Festival Theatre
Image by Bob King Creative for CFTThe best selling Christmas show Chichester Festival Theatre's incredible Youth Company have ever had! Over 23,000 people came to see our bold, reimagined take on The Jungle Book, with a thoroughly modern Mowgli in a fully decolonised jungle.
Once upon a time a wolf pack discovers an abandoned child in the heart of the forest, and shelter her from the fearsome tiger Shere Khan. She’s given the nickname ‘Mowgli’, and raised as one of the pack. Baloo, the fun-seeking bear, and Bagheera, the serious panther, try to teach her from the Jungle Book, but she soon realises the Book doesn’t have all the answers.
When Shere Khan tries to banish Mowgli from the jungle she has to search for somewhere to belong – discovering what it really means to be human and how she can always rely on her friends.
"Huge energy, great characterisation and lovely choreography" - Sussex Express
Two Billion Beats - Orange Tree Theatre
Photo by Alex BrennerPhoto by Alex BrennerSeventeen-year-old Asha is an empathetic rebel, inspired by historical revolutionaries and iconoclasts Sylvia Pankhurst and B R Ambedkar. She’s unafraid of pointing out the hypocrisy around her but less sure how to actually dismantle it.
Meanwhile, her younger sister, Bettina, wide-eyed and naïve, is just trying to get through the school day without getting her pocket money nicked. When Bettina turns to her for help, Asha starts to ask what standing up for her political beliefs really looks like.
★★★★ “Moving portrayal of sisterly love…I’d defy anyone to remain unmoved” The Guardian
★★★★ “Sonali Bhattacharyya has struck gold with this incredibly important play” Theatre Weekly
★★★★ “This timely and thoughtful new play from Sonali Bhattacharyya…compellingly shows that the stakes can be high when people – especially women – from a diaspora community raise their voices” WhatsOnStage
★★★★ “Confidently drawn two-hander that probes injustices, both domestic and colossal” The Stage
Two Billion Beats became a 2022 phenomenon, with 2 productions at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, and a Korean translation produced in Seoul.
Two Billion Beats - Kirkos Theatre, Seoul
Chasing Hares - Young Vic Theatre
Photography by Rosaline Shahnavaz, Design by Émilie ChenSet between 2000s Kolkata and contemporary Leicester, Chasing Hares tells the story of one family's resistance against the inhumanity of machine capitalism.
The Khub Bhalo garment factory is on lockdown, leaving Prab unemployed. He finds a way to win favour with Devesh, the boss' son by writing for his Bengali folk theatre troupe, but soon finds being Devesh’s right hand man is loaded with moral compromise. Prab is caught between his family’s modest hopes for a better life and his long-repressed desire for radical change. Is imagining a better future as hard as enacting one?
Directed by Milli Bhatia (Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner) and starring Irfan Shamji, Ayesha Darker, Zainab Hasan, Scott Karim and Saroja-Lily Ratnavel
★★★★★ “The story seamlessly yokes the personal to the political ” The Telegraph
★★★★ “Sonali Bhattacharyya's fast, witty script finds an original way to tell the global backstory of the zero-hours workforce, joining up the dots from child labour in West Bengal to unethical working conditions in Britain.” The Guardian
★★★★ "The way Sonali manages to mix comedy with thought-provoking and deeply affecting dialogue is a testament to her genius as a writer." All That Dazzles
Silence - Donmar Warehouse/Tara Theatre
Photograph by Manuel HarlanBased on personal testimonies from survivors of partition adapted from Kavita Puri's 'Partition Voices'. Co-written with Gurpreet Bhatti, Ishy Din and Alexandra Wood and directed by Abdul Shayek.
★★★★ "The power of ‘Silence’ comes in its impassioned, painful truths." - Timeout
Silence - Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch/Tara Theatre
Photo by Harry ElletsonAssembly: The Teachers’ Play - Almeida Theatre
Photo by Ali WrightA love letter to teachers and the power of collective organising in the face of the pandemic, Assembly was part of the Keyworkers' Cycle, a season of work inspired by medieval mystery plays and dedicated to the people who kept the country going during the first year of Covid. Assembly was directed by Kate Colledge and starred Doreene Blackstock and Jonny Khan plus an amazing community cast.
★★★★ "A potent reminder of the way a generation of pupils was failed by the government at what was already a desperately hard time." - The Stage
★★★★ "Taken all together each well-researched play formed a smart state of the nation overview." - The Telegraph
"Moving, courageous and memorable – emphasising the importance of kindness, dreaming, dancing and the mutual care that helps us survive." - The Observer
2066 - Almeida Theatre
Photo by Peter Schiazza'2066' imagines a future without universal healthcare and the impossible decisions this leaves a mother and her daughter. Directed by Dani Parr, with Sophie Melville as Eve and Sara Goddard as Kara.
Slummers - Cardboard Citizens/Bunker Theatre
An immersive multi-story speculation on need, greed and good intentions, HOME TRUTHS is revealed through the world premieres of nine short plays by some of the UK’s most exciting playwrights: Sonali Bhattacharyya, Lin Coghlan, EV Crowe, Anders Lustgarten, Nessah Muthy, Chris O’Connell, Stef Smith, David Watson and Heathcote Williams with Sarah Woods. My play ‘Slummers’ explored the challenges faced by a working class family during the Victorian slum clearances.
The Invisible Boy - Kiln Theatre
Written for a young company in Wembley Park as part of Kiln Theatre's 'Mapping Brent' festival, The Invisible Boy is a funny, spooky look at how complicated things can get when you’re a teenage boy.
★★★★★ “Had the audience in stitches. To misquote The Wizard of Oz, it was made quite clear that they were not in North London anymore.” - London Theatre1