Tanika Gupta: Political Plays

The first collection of plays by acclaimed British dramatist Tanika Gupta includes Sugar Mummies, White Boy, Sanctuary and Gladiator Games. Refusing to be pigeonholed as an ‘Asian playwright’, Gupta has a fresh perspective on race relations, generational divide and sexual politics. A National Youth Theatre production, White Boy attempts to make sense of school-age stabbings and the nature of inner city white identity, in an increasingly complex racial landscape. In Sugar Mummies, the gender politics of the sex trade are inverted as wealthy white women flock to the Carribean to take advantage of the native toy-boys. But who is exploiting who? On the eve of his release from Feltham Young Offenders Institution, Zahib Mubarek was attacked and killed by his racist cellmate. Gladiator Games is a verbatim drama that documents the Mubarek family's pursuit of the truth and the incompetence of the official response. In Sanctuary a London churchyard becomes a haven for the gardener Kabir. When a photo of an African church appears in this little Eden, a complex drama of morality and conscience unfolds.