Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti (born in Watford in 1968 or 1969 [1] ) is a British Sikh writer who has written extensively for stage, screen and radio. [2] Her play Behzti (Dishonour) was cancelled by the Birmingham Rep after protests against the play by Sikhs turned violent and alleged death threats forced Bhatti to go into hiding. [3]
Bhatti's first play, Behsharam (Shameless), received criticism from the Sikh community when it opened in 2001.
In 2005, Behzti won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the best English language play written by a woman. [4]
In 2010, her follow-up to Behzti titled Behud (Beyond Belief) [5] was co-produced by Soho Theatre and Coventry Belgrade and was shortlisted for the John Whiting Award.
In 2014, Khandan (Family) opened to sell-out audiences at the Birmingham Rep and the Royal Court Theatre.[ citation needed ]
In June 2014, her first anthology of plays, Plays One ( ISBN 9781783191307), was published by Oberon Books.
She is now[ when? ] working on a stage commission for the National Theatre. Bhatti also regularly writes for The Archers , [6] the Radio 4 drama serial.
The Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG).
Behzti is a play written by the British Sikh playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti. The play sparked controversy in the United Kingdom in December 2004. A controversial scene set in a Gurdwara included scenes of rape, physical abuse and murder, with some members of the Sikh community finding the play deeply offensive to their faith. On the opening night, 18 December 2004, at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, in Birmingham, England, a protest was organised by local Sikh leaders which turned violent, with the Rep cancelling performances of the play two days later. The case became part of a wider discussion in Britain about the limits of free speech and whether this can be curtailed where it offends the faith of religious groups.
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Gurpreet is a given name. Notable people with the name include: