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TARA ARTS
EDUCATION RESOURCE PACK
2013 UK TOUR
www.tara-arts.com
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TARA ARTS
CONTENTS
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Kanjoos The Miser & the National Curriculum
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About Tara Arts
•
About Tara Arts’ production
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Background – Moliere, The Miser and Farce
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Bollywood Film & Music
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Note from co-writer Hardeep Singh Kohli
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Creative Team & Cast Biographies
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Production Design from Kanjoos – The Miser
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Reviews & Press Quotes
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Script glossary
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Kanjoos – The Miser: 2013 Tour Dates & Theatres
Contact Details
Telephone 020 8333 4457
E-mail
[email protected]
Tara Arts, 356 Garratt Lane, London, SW18 4ES
Tara Arts team
Artistic Director
Executive Director
Associate Director - Design
Marketing Officer
Development Officer
Theatre Administrator
Finance Officer
Jatinder Verma
Jonathan Kennedy
Claudia Mayer
Amy Briggs
Ine Van Riet
Martina Ferry / Alexandra Wyatt
Xiao Hong (Sharon) Zhang
Registered Charity No: 295547
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TARA ARTS
Kanjoos The Miser & the National Curriculum
Tara Arts’ production of Kanjoos The Miser is adapted by Hardeep Singh Kohli & Jatinder Verma.
This new English version of Moliere’s classic French comedy is set in modern India and incorporates
Bollywood song and dance.
The production is suitable for study at Key Stage 3 and 4 including teaching across the national
curriculum in:
English & Theatre Studies
Critical Understanding: Engaging with ideas and texts, understanding and responding
to the main issues. Assessing the validity and significance of information and ideas from
different sources. Analysing and evaluating spoken and written language to appreciate
how meaning is shaped.
Music
Understanding musical traditions and the part music plays in global culture. Exploring
how ideas, experiences and emotions are conveyed in a range of music from different
times and cultures. Exploring ways music can be combined with other art forms.
Exploring how thoughts, feelings, ideas and emotions can be expressed through music.
Citizenship
Range and Content: Political, Legal and Human rights, responsibilities of citizens. How
economic decisions are made including where public money comes from and who
decides how it is spent. How actions that individuals, groups and organisations can take
to influence decisions affecting communities and the environment.
Modern Languages (FRENCH)
Awareness of aspects of other cultures such as everyday life, social customs, and
events. Making comparisons to their own culture and society. Recognising that
languages differ but may share common expressions.
This Education Resource Pack has been designed to give teachers and students information about
the play, Tara Arts’ production and practical classroom games and exercises linked to the National
Curriculum to support student visits to see the theatre production on tour.
CLASSROOM EXERCISES & ACTIVITIES are indicated throughout this Education Resource Pack.
Journey to the West (2001)
A Taste for Mangoes (2003)
The Black Album (2009)
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TARA ARTS
About Tara Arts
Tara Arts is a pioneering cross-cultural theatre
company founded in 1977. Global Theatre for
Local Audiences is the company’s artistic
vision. The vision sets out Tara Arts’ ambition
to engage diverse artists and audiences in
London and on tour in cross-cultural theatre.
Tara Arts was the first company to provide
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic artists a
voice and a space to share their respective
cultural heritages with all audiences. It was
also the first ethnic company to be invited to
present its work at the National Theatre.
Its home in south London is the base for a range of theatre activity every year:
• Production of European and Asian classics and modern plays
• Tours to junior schools of plays based on the great stories of the world
• Development of young and mid-career artists
• Engaging new audiences with the Arts
Artistic Director Jatinder Verma co-founded Tara Arts. In 1989 he directed his adaptation of Moliere’s
Tartuffe at the National Theatre with an all-Asian cast – the first such company to be seen on the
National stage.
Tara Arts has an exemplary record of artistic excellence across four decades, which includes more
co-productions with the National Theatre - The Little Clay Cart (1991), Cyrano (1995) and The Black
Album (2009). The company also staged an outstanding trilogy of plays - Journey to the West, an
epic of modern migration across 9 cities in Britain, in 2002.
Recent successes include the bi-lingual production of People’s Romeo (2010), the popular
pantomime, Bollywood Cinderella (2011), Dick Whittington goes Bollywood (2012) and Just So – a
new Opera by Farrukh and Danyal Dhondy based on Kipling’s stories for children.
Tara Arts has seen a multitude of exceptionally talented young, mid-career and established artists
pass through its doors. These range from the established, such as Hanif Kureishi CBE, Ian McMillan
and Alex Wheatle MBE to Ayub Khan Din (East is East), composer Nitin Sawhney, Sanjeev Bhaskar
(The Kumars at No 42), Naveen Andrews (The English Patient and LOST), Sudha Bhuchar
(Tamasha Theatre) and many more.
Tara Arts plans for the coming year are to redevelop its south London venue into a dedicated crosscultural theatre. The current tour forms an integral part of the developing story of Tara Arts and its
mission to ensure cross-cultural theatre for new generations of audiences and artists.
Patrons: Gurpreet Bhatti, Sir Richard Eyre CBE, Shobana Jeyasingh MBE, Naseem Khan OBE,
Hanif Kureishi CBE, Baroness Usha Prashar CBE, Sir Salman Rushdie and Nitin Sawhney.
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TARA ARTS
About Tara Arts production
Molière’s classic comedy The Miser is re-named Kanjoos (Hindi for “miser”) – The Miser and is
transported from 17th century France to modern India. By setting the play in modern India, Tara Arts
production presents a Bollywood version of the classic French farce, while remaining faithful to
Moliere’s orginial story, characters and rapid-fire comedy.
KANJOOS THE MISER
by Molière
adapted by Hardeep Singh Kohli & Jatinder Verma
from a literal translation by Patricia Dreyfus
In money-mad modern India, there lives in a small town a man called Harjinder (Harpagon in the
original French), who is known locally as "makhi choos" (fly-sucking miser). A man who relentlessly
quotes Gandhi's principles of self-sacrifice to justify hoarding his wealth. While he hates spending
money, his children are desperate to get married and escape to the Bollywood life-style of nearby
Mumbai.
This new version of Moliere's classic farce is a comedy for our money-obsessed times.
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Background – Moliere, The Miser and Farce
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, (15th January 1622 – 17th February 1673)
was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in
Western literature.
Among Molière's best-known works are Le Misanthrope (The
Misanthrope), L'École des femmes (The School for Wives),
Tartuffe ou L'Imposteur, (Tartuffe or the Imposter), L'Avare
(The Miser), Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid)
and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman).
L'Avare is a 1668 five-act satirical comedy and its’ title is
usually translated to The Miser when the play is performed in
English. The play was first performed in 1668 at the Palais
Royal in a period when Molière's company was, on the one
hand, under considerable establishment pressure to modify
its output, but on the other hand, under the protection of
Louis XIV himself. Little is known about the original
performance, although it is said that Molière himself played
Harpagon.
The Miser is a farcical comedy of manners about a rich moneylender named Harpagon. His feisty
children long to escape from his penny-pinching household and marry their respective lovers. The
play is also notable for the way in which it sends up certain theatrical conventions. Many comedies
from the Elizabethan period and onwards contain asides delivered by characters to the audience
which the other actors ignore. In The Miser, however, characters generally demand to know who
exactly these asides are being delivered to.
(Wikipedia – Edited Version)
CLASSROOM EXERCISE
In Kanjoos The Miser what do you think Moliere (& the adapters) want to say about
Harjinder?
How realistic is the comedy? Can you think of similar examples from today?
What effect does Harjinder’s obsession with money have on his children?
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TARA ARTS
BOLLYWOOD FILM & MUSIC
Bollywood film is the largest and most popular film industry in the world. Many hundreds of Bollywood
films are made in India each year. As a genre, Bollywood emerges directly from English Music Hall
theatre. The films are known for their simple moral stories, heightened characters, colour, songs and
high-energy dance routines. In Tara Arts production all of the music is taken from classic Bollywood
films.
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The song “Eyk dho teen…” from AWARA
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The song “Ai dil mushkil jeena yahan…” from CID
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The song “Zindabaad, zindabaad, ai mohabat…” from MUGHAL-E-AZAM
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The song “Dum maro dum…” from HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA
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The song “Jaaney kya tuuney kahi…” from PYAASA
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The song “Dhire dhire chal chand gagan mein” from LOVE MARRIAGE
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The famous ‘Twist’ song "Eena Meena Deeka..." from the film ASHA (1957)
CLASSROOM EXERCISE
What affect did live music have in the performance?
In Bollywood films the movie actors lip-synch (mime) to the music. What affect did this have in Tara
Arts’ production?
The Bollywood songs in Kanjoos The Miser convey meaning to explain the story and emotive content
in the scenes:
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Ye Hai Bombai Meri Jaan (Kishore’s song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlAOZrst6fQ
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Zindabaad (Love song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0CIZv9Y5n4
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Eena Meena Dika (The twist song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85-vsILZjvw
You can watch Tara Arts trailer for the show, to hear some of the Bollywood songs extracts
http://tara-arts.com/whats-on/kanjoos-the-miser--national-tour-2013
Can you think of suitable alternative songs from other musical traditions that could be used in the
performance?
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TARA ARTS
Note from Hardeep Singh Kohli
“Has there ever been a better time to revisit Molière’s The Miser?
It is King Louis XIV’s France. Louis emboldened 17th century Paris - a
Paris at the zenith of fashion, a city of architectural splendour, titillating
gossip and political intrigue.
2012. Our world spins on an axis of the financial, orbits the chaos of
consumerism. We have crashed and burned, seemingly imprisoned by the
free market.
While the worlds may seem different human nature has changed little. But
today’s India…well, its trajectory is inexorably upward.
Molière’s Harpagon becomes Tara Arts’ Harjinder, and while the names
change, the accents and a few references it is astonishing how crackling,
how coruscatingly contemporary the narrative is, particularly given the mores of modern, ebullient
India.
I was initially marked by Molière 25 years ago, watching Liz Lochead’s stunning Scots translation of
Tartuffe. Jatinder Verma brought me The Miser, a play I had heard much about but had never seen
produced. The humour, the politics, the challenge to theatrical convention: there’s so much to love
about Molière.”
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Creative Team & Cast Biographies
Writer/Adaptation: Hardeep Singh Kohli
Hardeep Singh Kohli, as well as being a seasoned reporter, comic, cook and presenter, he
has had an acclaimed career as a journalist and writer. His column in Scotland on Sunday
saw him nominated twice for Scottish Columnist of the year as well as articles for The
Independent on Sunday, The Guardian and The Times. For Channel 4 he wrote and
presented the BAFTA award winning In Search of the Tartan Turban. Hardeep has
previously performed at the Tara Theatre with sold-out audiences for his Edinburgh shows
Chat Masala, The Nearly Naked Chef and Indian Takeaway.
Website: www.hardeepsinghkohli.co.uk
Director/co-writer: Jatinder Verma
Jatinder Verma is Artistic Director of Tara Arts. Most recently Jatinder directed the Just So
opera for the Tête à Tête Festival. In 2009 he directed Hanif Kureishi's The Black Album for
the National Theatre and a UK Tour. He first worked at the National in 1989, with an acclaimed
version of Molière's Tartuffe. In 2011 he directed the Tara Arts Christmas pantomime,
Bollywood Cinderella and Alex Wheatle's Uprising which toured the UK.
Designer: Claudia Mayer
Claudia Mayer trained with Percy Harris at Motley and has worked freelance in opera, ballet
and theatre. Work for Tara Arts includes: Miranda, Marriage of Figaro, An Enemy of the
People, The Merchant of Venice, Journey to the West (a trilogy), 2001 a Ramayan Odyssey
and two large- scale events in Trafalgar Square.
Lighting Designer: Howard Hudson
Howard Hudson studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design. He won the Off West
End Award for Best Lighting Design in 2011 and 2012. Productions for Tara Arts include:
Miranda, People’s Romeo and Bollywood Cinderella. Other recent projects include, Mack and
Mabel, The Illusion (Southwark Playhouse), Strong Arm (503 and Old Vic New Voices),
Cornelius (Finborough) and 1936 (Sadlers Wells).
Translator: Patricia Dreyfus
Patricia Dreyfus first became interested in the subtleties of translation versus interpretation
whilst writing her dissertation on the French and Italian versions of Melville’s Moby Dick at
Sussex University. When she was asked by Tara Arts to work on The Miser, she rose to the
challenge of staying faithful to the spirit of Molière.
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TARA ARTS
CLASSROOM EXERCISE
For Tara Arts’ production, Patricia Dreyfus’ literal translation was used by Hardeep Singh Kohli &
Jatinder Verma to write their adaptation. The names of the characters in their version were changed
to fit in the modern Indian setting.
Using an original French version of the Moliere’s play can you work out which character is
which from the original script? See the cast biographies below for clues.
C AS T & M US I CI ANS
Antony Bunsee
Character: Harjinder
Trained: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and University of Exeter. Stage:
Dracula (Derby Playhouse), Revengers’ Tragedy (tour), The White Devil (tour),
Homebody Kabul (Cheek by Jowel) and A Passsage to India (Shared
Experience). For the RSC: The Odyssey, Tamburlaine, The School of Night,
Midnights’ Children and The Histories Company (2006 - 8). For Tara Arts: The
Government Inspector, Oedipus, Pinocchio Gone Asia and The Merchant of
Venice.TV: Hollyoaks, My Family and Eastenders.Film: Get The Picture, Dorian
Gray, Sex and the City 2 and Jadoo.
Krupa Pattani
Characters: Dimple/ Lalli Farishta
Trained: Drama Studio London.Stage: Twelfth Night and Masters Are You
Mad? (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre), Bollywood Cinderella and Dick
Whittington goes Bollywood (Tara Arts), dinnerladies: Second Helpings (UK
Tour), Moonfleece (Riverside Studios and UK tour), Starfish (London Tour/Y
Touring), Lichentongue (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Unzipped (Young Vic/
Talawa), Handful of Henna (Sheffield Theatres), The Borrowers (MAC) and
Child of the Divide (Polka Theatre/ Tamasha).TV: MI High and
Casualty (BBC).
Sam Kordbacheh
Character: Valmiki
Trained: The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA).Stage: Hysteria
(Theatre Royal Bath), The Merchant of Venice, Peter Pan, Noises Off, The
Talented Mr Ripley (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch) and Dick Whittington goes
Bollywood (Tara Arts) TV: Genie in the House (Nickelodeon)
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Deven Modha
Characters: Kishore/ Manju
Trained: Birmingham School of Acting.Stage: Dick Whittington goes Bollywood
for Tara Arts. Member of Tamasha Theatre’s Developing Artists’ Programme.
Film: Shoot Me (Palladio Film)
Mehrish Yasin
Characters: Mariam/ Kohli
Trained: Drama Studio London.Stage: Pentecost (St Leonards Shoreditch),
Arabian Nights (Blue Orange Theatre), Once We Were Mothers and The
Winter’s Tale, and Dick Whittington goes Bollywood (Tara Arts).
Caroline Kilpatrick
Characters: Frosine/ Aslam
Trained: RADA. Stage: The Tempest, the Hotbed season Dick
Whittington goes Bollywood (Tara Arts), Innocence and Yerma (The
Arcola), Stephen and the Sexy Partridge (Old Red Lion). Radio: Guilty, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hobson’s Choice, Rel, The Death of Tintagel
and The Love of the Nightingale.Film: The Invisible Woman
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Sohini Alam
Singer
Sohini Alam is a British vocalist of Bangladeshi descent whose musical
repertoire includes folk, patriotic, modern and traditional Bengali songs with
a specialisation in Nazrul Sangeet (music of Kazi Nazrul Islam, a Bengali
poet). She has branched out into multi-lingual music in bands, dance and
theatre. A third generation vocalist, Sohini trained in music with Hiron Alam,
Jannat Ara and Ferdous Ara. She is the lead vocalist for Khiyo (British
Bengali band) and Kishon Khan’s Afro-Cuban-Bengali Jazz band, Lokkhi
Terra.
Khiyo: www.khiyo.com
Danyal Dhondy
Composer/Keyboard
Danyal Dhondy is a London-based composer and arranger. He has written
two operas this year: Just So (Tête à Tête Festival directed by Jatinder
Verma) and The Open Cage (The Yard). He has made arrangements for
OperaUpClose and Malmö Opera, which led to a nomination for an Arts
Foundation Award in Opera Composition. He has arranged string parts for
albums including Sam Lee’s Mercury-nominated Ground of its Own and
composed three pieces for Kensington Chamber Orchestra.
Website: www.danyaldhondy.com
Hassan Mohyeddin
Percussion
Hassan Mohyeddin is a tabla player, multi-percussionist and music
Producer. He hails from the Punjab School of Tabla, having trained for
several years with tabla maestro, Ustad Lachhman Singh Seen. Hassan
has a degree in music production and sound engineering from the London
School of Sound and has worked as a professional musician for the last
ten years. He has toured many countries, collaborating with artists
including Nahid Siddiqui, Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan and Baluji Srivastav. He
currently plays in London based bands Lokkhi Terra and Khiyo.
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Production Design
For the production run @ Tara Theatre, Autumn 2012
CLASSROOM EXERCISE
Having seen the performance and the photographs, discuss in groups or 4 or 5.
How do the costume designs help you understand about the characters in the story?
Think about how the designer uses colour and Indian costumes to help tell the story.
What did young middle-class men and women wear in 17th century Paris?
Go on-line to research and discover what the main differences are from Tara Arts’ version?
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Press Review & Quotes: Kanjoos – The Miser
Production run at Tara Theatre, 26th September - 13th October 2012
On-stage musicians welcome the crowd to their seats and create an informal atmosphere like a
family get-together rather than a drama. The Spectator
Hardeep Singh Kohli’s script drips with pop culture references while keeping Moliere’s joy of the
ridiculous intact. Each member of this charming ensemble sends up both classic and contemporary
stereotypes with joyous abandon. This warm and funny show is just the tonic to counter the cold
pinch of austerity. The Stage
Kohli’s mischievous updating and the irresistible sense of fun generated by Jatinder Verma’s playfully
chaotic production. Impressive musical accompaniment is provided by Sohini Alam’s sweeping
vocals backed up admirably by some surprisingly experimental electronic squelching by Danny
Dhondy. Exeunt Magazine
***** 5 STARS “A fabulous vibrant, colourful and extremely funny theatre piece from Tara Arts. It
shows the company’s distinctive style at its best: inventive and eclectic in its hybridisation between
eastern and western influences; self-consciously knowing in its relationship to the audience; and
unpredictable in the way it weaves the rough theatre of folklore with a more contemporary
perspective on the India that has become capitalism’s latest poster-boy. The language is a
wonderfully rich mix of Indian English. The staging conventions play up both western and Indian
comic traditions in the minimal, but very atmospheric set created by Claudia Mayer
The Public Reviews
CLASSROOM EXERCISE
Imagine you are a theatre critic writing for a national newspaper. Write a review of the production.
How does Tara Arts translate Moliere’s original French farce to modern India? Convey the story and
what you felt about the production to a reader who has not seen the play. Avoid using clichéd
expressions such as “enjoyed it” or “colourful”.
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TARA ARTS
For the production Tara Arts has produced a fun glossary of Indian terms and
expression used in the performance of Kanjoos The Miser to amuse audiences and entertain the
uninitiated.
CLASSROOM EXERCISE
Write a short story which includes at least 15 words and/or phrases from the glossary.
Does the use of Indian words/phrases give a unique sense of time and place to your story?
How would you describe the culture you conjure in your story?
GLOSSARY
HAVELI Mansion
SMILING GANDHIS Rupee notes
GHAZALS A form of poetic song – similar to
a sonnet
KISMET Fate
AGGAR BATI Incense
JAAN Soul
BHAGAVAD-GITA Ancient Hindu scripture
TAMASHA A grand show
PUKKA Complete, fully formed
ANNA Penny, smallest denomination of
Indian currency
NEEM An evergreen tree of the mahogany
family, with medicinal properties
DANDA stick, but also a crude description
LAKHS One hundred thousand
PARVEEN BABI Glamorous Hindi film
actress
HEMA MALINI Another Hindi film actress
AHWAIRYA RAI former Miss World, now
one of the famous film actresses
CHUA Mouse, Tiny
MA-BAAP Mother-father, elders
CHAPPAL Sandal
KUNDALINI Life-force
PENJI Sister
FARISHTA Angel
A KADU Pumpkin
MELA Fun-fair
DHARAVI Mumbai’s largest slum
TANGA-WALLAH buggy driver
RISHTA Marriage arrangement
ISHQ Love
VAKILS Lawyers
IZZAT Honour
GULI-DANDA Stick-and-stone game
SABZIS Vegetables
KHEER Rice pudding
KHICHLDI Rice and lentil gruel – usually
eaten when ill
ALMIRAH Wardrobe
ALLAH-KASAM an oath (‘I swear in Allah’s
name’)
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Kanjoos – The Miser: 2013 UK Tour
Mon 18 to Sat 23 February
THEATRE ROYAL WINDSOR
Thames Street, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1PS
Box Office 01753 853 888
www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk
Tues 26 February to Sat 2 March
DUNDEE REP
Tay Square, Dundee, DD1 1PB, Scotland
Box Office 01382 223530
www.dundeerep.co.uk
Wed 6 to Sat 9 March
STRATFORD CIRCUS
Theatre Square, London, E15 1BX
Box Office 0844 357 2625
www.stratford-circus.com
Tues 12 March
KEY THEATRE
Embankment Road, Peterborough, PE1 1EF
Box Office 01733 207239
www.vivacity-peterborough.com
Thurs 14 to Fri 15 March
MARLOWE THEATRE
The Friars, Canterbury, CT1 2AS
Box Office 01227 787 787
www.marlowetheatre.com
Wed 20 to Sat 23 March
THEATRE ROYAL
Westgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1QR
Box Office 01284 769505
www.theatreroyal.org
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