The Empress

by Tanika Gupta

  THE EMPRESS

  TANIKA GUPTA

  THE EMPRESS

  OBERON BOOKS

  LONDON

  WWW.OBERONBOOKS.COM

  First published in 2013 by Oberon Books Ltd

  521 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH

  Tel: +44 (0) 20 7607 3637 / Fax: +44 (0) 20 7607 3629

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  www.oberonbooks.com

  Copyright © Tanika Gupta, 2013

  Tanika Gupta is hereby identified as author of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted her moral rights.

  All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before commencement of rehearsal to the The Agency (London) Ltd, 24 Pottery Lane, Holland Park, London W11 4LZ. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained, and no alterations may be made in the title or the text of the play without the author’s prior written consent.

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  PB ISBN: 978-1-84943-490-4

  EPUB ISBN: 978-1-84943-836-0

  Image design and typography by RSC Graphic Design.

  Photograph of Anneika Rose by Jillian Edelstein.

  Printed, bound and converted

  by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.

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  This play is dedicated to my mother – Gairika Gupta

  Acknowledgements

  The author would like to thank the following people

  for their insight and support in the writing of this play:

  Michael Boyd, Jeanie O’Hare, Pippa Hill,

  Rozina Visram and Emma Rice.

  ABOUT THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

  The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opened in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1879. Since then the plays of Shakespeare have been performed here, alongside the work of his contemporaries and of modern playwrights. In 1960 the Royal Shakespeare Company was formed, gaining its Royal Charter in 1961.

  The founding Artistic Director, Peter Hall, created an ensemble theatre company of young actors and writers. The Company was led by Hall, Peter Brook and Michel Saint-Denis. The founding principles were threefold: the Company would embrace the freedom and power of Shakespeare’s work, train and develop young actors and directors and, crucially, experiment in new ways of making theatre. There was a new spirit amongst this post-war generation and they intended to open up Shakespeare’s plays as never before.

  The impact of Peter Hall’s vision cannot be underplayed. In 1955 he premiered Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in London, and the result was like opening a window during a storm. The tumult of new ideas emerging across Europe in art, theatre and literature came flooding into British theatre. Hall channelled this new excitement into the setting up of the Company in Stratford. Exciting breakthroughs took place in the rehearsal room and the studio day after day. The RSC became known for exhilarating performances of Shakespeare alongside new masterpieces such as The Homecoming and Old Times by Harold Pinter. It was a combination that thrilled audiences.

  Peter Hall’s rigour on classical text became legendary, but what is little known is that he applied everything he learned working on Beckett, and later on Harold Pinter, to his work on Shakespeare, and likewise he applied everything he learned from Shakespeare onto modern texts. This close and exacting relationship between writers from different eras became the fuel which powered the creativity of the RSC.

  The search for new forms of writing and directing was led by Peter Brook. He pushed writers to experiment. “Just as Picasso set out to capture a larger slice of the truth by painting a face with several eyes and noses, Shakespeare, knowing that man is living his everyday life and at the same time is living intensely in the invisible world of his thoughts and feelings, developed a method through which we can see at one and the same time the look on a man’s face and the vibrations of his brain.”

  In our fifty years of producing new plays, we have sought out some of the most exciting writers of their generation. These have included: Edward Albee, Howard Barker, Edward Bond, Howard Brenton, Marina Carr, Caryl Churchill, Martin Crimp, David Edgar, Helen Edmundson, James Fenton, Georgia Fitch, David Greig, Dennis Kelly, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Martin McDonagh, Frank McGuinness, Rona Munro, Anthony Neilson, Harold Pinter, Phil Porter, Mike Poulton, Mark Ravenhill, Adriano Shaplin, Tom Stoppard, debbie tucker green and Roy Williams.

  The Company today is led by Gregory Doran, whose recent appointment represents a long-term commitment to the disciplines and craftsmanship required to put on the plays of Shakespeare. He, along with Executive Director, Catherine Mallyon, and his Deputy Artistic Director, Erica Whyman, will take forward a belief in celebrating both Shakespeare’s work and the work of his contemporaries, as well as inviting some of the most exciting theatre-makers of today to work with the Company on new plays.

  The RSC Ensemble is generously supported by THE GATSBY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION and THE KOVNER FOUNDATION.

  The RSC is grateful for the significant support of its principal funder, Arts Council England, without which our work would not be possible. Around 50 per cent of the RSC’s income is self-generated from Box Office sales, sponsorship, donations, enterprise and partnerships with other organisations.

  NEW WORK AT THE RSC

  We are a contemporary theatre company built on classical rigour. We commission playwrights to engage with the muscularity and ambition of the classics. We have recently re-launched the RSC Studio to resource writers, directors and actors to explore and develop new ideas for our stages. We invite writers to spend time with us in our rehearsal rooms, with our actors and practitioners. Alongside developing their own plays for our stages, we invite them to contribute dramaturgically to both our main stage Shakespeare productions and our Young People’s Shakespeare.

  We believe that our writers help to establish a creative culture within the Company which both inspires new work and creates an ever more urgent sense of enquiry into the classics. The benefits work both ways. With our writers, our actors naturally learn the language of dramaturgical intervention and sharpen their interpretation of roles. Our writers benefit from re-discovering the stagecraft and theatre skills that have been lost over time. They regain the knack of writing roles for leading actors. They become hungry to use classical structures to power up their plays.

  Pippa Hill is our Literary Manager and Mark Ravenhill is our Playwright in Residence.

  The RSC Literary Department is generously supported by THE DRUE HEINZ TRUST.

  The Empress is generously supported by THE LECHE TRUST.

  CROSS is the exclusive pen partner of the RSC in support of New Work.

  This production of The Empress was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, on 11 April 2013. The cast was as follows:

  GANDHI

  Ankur Bahl

  SINGER/LASCAR

  Dom Coyote

  DADABHAI NAOROJI

  Vincent Ebrahim

  QUEEN VICTORIA

  Beatie Edne
y

  FIROZA

  Rina Fatania

  LASCAR SALLY/MARY

  Tamzin Griffin

  LADY SARAH

  Kristin Hutchinson

  ABDUL KARIM

  Tony Jayawardena

  SINGER/AYAH

  Japjit Kaur

  SUSAN MATTHEWS/GEORGINA

  Emily Mytton

  SERANG

  Aki Omoshaybi

  HARI

  Ray Panthaki

  RANI DAS

  Anneika Rose

  SIR JOHN OAKHAM/WILLIAM

  Ed Woodall

  All other parts played by members of the Company.

  Directed by

  Emma Rice

  Designed by

  Lez Brotherston

  Lighting Designed by

  Malcolm Rippeth

  Music by

  Stu Barker and

  Sheema Mukherjee

  Sound Designed by

  Jonathan Ruddick

  Fights by

  Terry King

  Director of Puppetry

  Sarah Wright

  Video Designed by

  Maxwell White

  Bharatanatyam Choreography by

  Ankur Bahl

  Company Movement by

  Emma Rice

  Additional Lyrics by

  Dom Coyote

  Company Text and Voice Work by

  Lyn Darnley

  Dialect Coach

  Zabarjad Salam

  Assistant Director

  Dan Coleman

  Music Director

  Stu Barker

  Music Supervisor

  Tom Brady

  Casting by

  Helena Palmer CDG

  Dramaturg

  Pippa Hill

  Production Managers

  Mark Graham and

  Janet Gautrey

  Costume Supervisor

  Ed Parry

  Company Stage Manager

  Suzi Blakey

  Deputy Stage Manager

  Amy Griffin

  Assistant Stage Manager

  Helen Fletcher

  MUSICIANS

  Violin/Accordion

  Michael Keelan

  Guitars/Percussion

  David Brown

  Sitar/Clarinet/Vocals

  Sheema Mukherjee

  Santoor/Trombone/Percussion

  Stu Barker

  Double Bass/Bass Guitar

  Dave Storer

  Percussion

  James Jones

  This text may differ slightly from the play as performed.

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  THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

  Patron

  Her Majesty The Queen

  President

  His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales

  Chairman

  Nigel Hugill

  Deputy Chairman

  Lady Sainsbury of Turville CBE

  Artistic Director

  Gregory Doran

  Executive Director

  Catherine Mallyon

  Board

  Sir William Atkinson

  Damon Buffini

  David Burbidge OBE

  Miranda Curtis

  Gregory Doran (Artistic Director)

  Mark Foster

  Gilla Harris

  John Hornby

  Nigel Hugill

  Catherine Mallyon (Executive Director)

  Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall

  Paul Morrell OBE

  Lady Sainsbury of Turville CBE

  James Shapiro

  David Tennant

  The RSC was established in 1961. It is incorporated under Royal Charter and is a registered charity, number 212481.

  Contents

  Character

  Act One

  Act Two

  Notes

  Characters

  RANI DAS

  16-year-old Bengali ayah. Ages to 29 years old.

  HARI SHARMA

  Young Indian lascar. Ages from his 20s to 30s.

  ABDUL KARIM

  24-year-old Indian servant to the Queen.

  Ages to 37 years old.

  DADABHAI NAOROJI

  Elderly Parsi man

  (Founder of Indian National Congress).

  QUEEN VICTORIA

  67 years of age to her death at the age of 81.

  LASCAR SALLY

  Boarding House landlady.

  LADY SARAH

  Queen Victoria’s Lady-In-Waiting.

  GEORGINA

  Housekeeper to Lord John Oakham.

  LORD JOHN OAKHAM

  Rani’s employer.

  FIROZA

  Indian ayah in her 30s.

  OTHERS:

  SERANG

  Captain of the lascars.

  MK GANDHI

  18-year-old youth.

  SUSAN MATTHEWS

  Rani’s first employer.

  CHARLOTTE

  English missionary.

  MARY

  English missionary.

  WILLIAM

  English (Liberal) politician.

  Others: children, ayahs, lascars, English Victorian people, Indian dancers, politicians.

  Ayahs = Indian nannies who looked after English children.

  Often in domestic servitude for life.

  Lascars = Sailors from the Empire used by British Empire for ships trading throughout the Indian Empire. Often termed as ‘the black poor’.

  The Empress is set in the last fourteen years of Queen Victoria’s rule. 1887-1901.

  ACT ONE

  1887

  SCENE 1

  We are on a ship’s upper deck circa 1887. We see a ragged group of Asian sailors (lascars) busily scrubbing the deck with soap and water. The lascars are from all different corners of the Asian sub-continent – Chinese, Indian and some black Africans too. All of them are barefooted and look undernourished and dirty. They sing as they scrub the deck.

  SONG:

  LASCARS:

  There’s a Clan boat just leaving Bombay,

  Bound for old Blighty’s shore;

  Heavily loaded with bum engineers,

  Bound for the land they abhor.

  She’s down by the head, she’s listing to port,

  She’s making three knots with the tide;

  But you’ll get no enjoyment from Clan Line employment,

  So come on, me lads, bless ’em all!

  Bless ’em all, bless ’em all;

  The Tindal, the Kasab and all;

  Bless all the ‘Sparkies’, they’re all round the twist;

  Bless all the pursers, and their limp wrists!

  If the en
gineers can get us home,

  The ‘Kala Pani’ no more will I roam;

  ’Cause you’ll get no promotion, this side of the ocean,

  So cheer up, me lads, bless ’em all!

  SONG: LASCAR RAP

  Head across the Arabian sea,

  Carrying opium, spices, tea.

  Navigate ’round the cape of good hope,

  Scrub the decks or get flogged with rope.

  The ports of Bombay and Calcutta,

  The banks of the Ganges to London gutters.

  Bless them all and serve the Empire,

  Queen and country, stoke the fire.

  Bombay, Mandalay, Madagascar,

  Ship’d never sail without the lascas.

  The ports of Canada to the Ivory Coast,