Tanika Gupta

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Tanika Gupta
MBE, FRSL
Born (1963-12-01) 1 December 1963 (age 60)
Chiswick, Hounslow, London, England
NationalityBritish
EducationModern history
Alma mater Oxford University
Occupation(s)Playwright, screenwriter
Years active1998–present
Known forTheatre, television
StyleDrama, radio drama, screenplay
Spouse
David Archer
​
(m. 1988)​
Children3
Relatives Dinesh Chandra Gupta
(maternal great uncle)
Website tanikagupta.com

Tanika Gupta MBE FRSL (born 1 December 1963) is a British playwright. Apart from her work for the theatre, she has also written scripts for television, film and radio plays.

Contents

Early life

Tanika Gupta was born in London to immigrant parents from Kolkata, India, [1] where her family had their origins. [2] As a child, Gupta performed Tagore dance dramas with her parents. Her mother Gairika Gupta was an Indian classically trained dancer, and her father Tapan Gupta was a singer. The Indian revolutionary Dinesh Gupta was her great uncle. [3]

After attending Copthall Comprehensive School in London and then Mill Hill School for her A levels, [4] Gupta graduated from Oxford University with a Modern History degree. After Oxford, her political commitment found expression in her work for an Asian women's refuge in Manchester. In 1988, she married David Archer an anti-poverty activist and ActionAid's current Head of Tax Justice and Public Services, whom she met at university. She and her husband then moved to London where Gupta was initially a community worker in Islington, writing in her spare time. [3]

Career

Over the past 25 years Tanika has written over 25 stage plays that have been produced in major theatres across the UK. She has also written 30 radio plays for the BBC and several original television dramas, as well as scripts for EastEnders, Grange Hill and The Bill. The Waiting Room (produced for the National Theatre in 2000) was an early career highpoint with Indian film star Shabana Azmi performing on the stage in London for the first time. [5] [6] [7]

Gupta's 2013 play The Empress, about Abdul Karim and Queen Victoria opened in Stratford upon Avon and is now on the GCSE curriculum along with her adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House, which was first performed at Hammersmith Lyric in 2018. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] Writing in The Daily Telegraph , Dominic Cavendish praised The Empress, saying: "This fascinating new theatre production has got 'make this into a movie' written all over it." [11]

Her play Lions and Tigers performed at the Sam Wannamaker in Shakespeare's Globe Theatre tells the remarkable story set in the 1930s of her great uncle, Dinesh Gupta, an Indian freedom fighter. Lions and Tigers is now published in Methuen's series of Modern Classics. [17] [18] [19] Praise for Lions and Tigers singled out the "intimate storytelling, where Gupta's writing is at its most playful and potent" for particular note. [19] Other notable plays include Sugar Mummies (Royal Court Theatre 2006); [7] Gladiator Games (Sheffield Crucible Theatre 2006); [20] [21] Hobson's Choice (Young Vic 2001 and Manchester Royal Exchange 2018). [22] [23] [24] [25] Her most recent productions are Mirror on the Moor (Royal Court Living Newspaper, April 2021), and The Overseas Student (Hammersmith Lyric, June 2021). [26] [27] [28] [29]

Personal life

Gupta and her husband have two daughters, Nandini (born 1991), Niharika (born 1993), and a son Malini (born 2000). [3]

Works

Theatre plays

YearTitle
1995Voices on the Wind (NT Studio)
1997Skeleton (Soho)
1997A River Sutra (NT Studio / 3 Mill Island)
1998On The Couch with Enoch (BAC)
2000The Waiting Room (National Theatre)
2002Sanctuary (National Theatre)
Inside Out (Arcola)
2003 Hobson's Choice (Young Vic)
Fragile Land (Hampstead)
2004The Country Wife (Watford)
2006Gladiator Games (Sheffield Crucible)
Catch (Royal Court)
Sugar Mummies (Royal Court)
2008Meet The Mukherjees (Bolton Octagon)
White Boy (Soho)
2010Great Expectations (Watford)
2012Wah Wah Girls (Saddlers Wells / Peacock Theatre)
2013Love'N'Stuff (Stratford East)
2013The Empress (RSC)
2015Anita and Me (Birmingham Rep)
2016A Midsummer Night's Dream (dramaturg at The Globe)
2017Lions and Tigers (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Hull Truck)
2018Hobsons's Choice (Royal Exchange)
2019A Doll's House (Lyric Hammersmith, London)
Red Dust Road (National Theatre Scotland/Edinburgh International Festival)
Hobson's Choice (Manchester Royal Exchange)
Bones (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama)
2021Mirror on the Moor (Royal Court, London)
2021The Overseas Student (Lyric Hammersmith, London)

Radio plays

YearTitle
1991Asha (BBC Radio 4)
1994Badal and his Bike (BBC Radio 5)
Kiss Me Quick (BBC Radio 5)
1996Pankhiraj (BBC Radio 4)
1997Ananda Sananda (BBC Radio 4)
Kiss Me Quick (BBC Radio 5)
The Bounty Hunter (BBC Radio 4)
Skeleton (BBC Radio 4)
1998Voices On The Wind (BBC World Service)
Red Oleanders (BBC Radio 3)
Westway (BBC World Service)
1999Muse of Fusion (BBC Radio 4)
Coat (BBC Radio 4)
Waistland (BBC Radio 4)
The Queen's Retreat (BBC Radio 4)
2000The Eternal Bubble (BBC World Service)
The Secret (BBC Radio 4)
The Book of Secrets (BBC Radio 4)
2001Betrayal: The Trial of William Davidson (BBC)
Stowaway (BBC)
2002A Second Chance (BBC Radio 3)
2003The Parting (BBC Radio 4)
2004The God of Small Things (BBC Radio 4)
2005Chitra (BBC Radio 4)
2008Rudolpho's Zest (BBC Radio 3)
Silver Street (BBC Asian Network)
2010Rescue Me (BBC Radio 4)
2012A Doll's House (BBC Radio 3)
2013Pather Panchali (BBC Radio 4)
2014Baby Farming (BBC Radio 3)

Filmography

YearTitleNotesCredit
1995FlightTV filmWriter
BideshiShort
Siren Spirits1 episode: "Bideshi"
1999The FiancéeShort
2000 EastEnders 4 episodes: inc "17 January 2000"
1997–2000 Grange Hill 7 episodes: "20:19", "20:20", "21:15", "22.9", "22:10", "23:5", "23:6"
2001 Crossroads Unknown episodes
The Bill 1 episode: "Complicity (Part 2)"
2002The Lives of AnimalsTV filmScreenplay
2006 Banglatown Banquet
2010Non-ResidentShortWriter
2018PritilataMonologue as part of Snatches series, BBCWriter

Awards and recognition

In 2008, Gupta was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours for her services to drama. [3] [30] In June 2016 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2018, Gupta was awarded with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Drama for her play Lions and Tigers. [31]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "About". Tanika Gupta.
  2. ↑ Verma, Jatinder (12 September 2017). Shakespeare's Globe (ed.). "A passion from within: Tanika Gupta on her new play about the fight for Indian Independence". Medium .
  3. 1 2 3 4 Roy, Amit (15 July 2008). "Hanged Bengali icon's great-niece bags MBE". The Telegraph . Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  4. ↑ Roberts, Alison (7 August 2007). "London's teenage crisis". London Evening Standard . Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  5. ↑ "Theatre is a great leveller, says Shabana Azmi". Telangana Today.
  6. ↑ "Playwright Tanika Gupta career overview".
  7. 1 2 "Tanika Gupta talks to Lyn Gardner about her new play". The Guardian. 25 July 2006.
  8. ↑ "The Empress". 11 June 2015.
  9. ↑ "Tanika Gupta's new RSC play sheds light on a hidden royal history". Birmingham Mail. 19 April 2013.
  10. ↑ "The Empress | By Tanika Gupta". Royal Shakespeare Company.
  11. 1 2 "The Empress, Swan Theatre, RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, review". The Daily Telegraph.
  12. ↑ "The Empress (RSC)". WhatsOnStage. 17 April 2013.
  13. ↑ "A Doll's House review – Ibsen's classic shrewdly reimagined in colonial India". The Guardian. 12 September 2019.
  14. ↑ "Review: A Doll's House at the Lyric Hammersmith".
  15. ↑ "Review: A Doll's House (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre)". WhatsOnStage. 12 September 2019.
  16. ↑ "A Doll's House". BBC.
  17. ↑ "Lions and Tigers review: Superb central performance from Shubham Saraf" . The Independent. 4 September 2017. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022.
  18. ↑ "Review: Lions and Tigers (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse)". WhatsOnStage. 30 August 2017.
  19. 1 2 "Lions and Tigers review – bloody epic sounds out India's young revolutionaries". The Guardian. 30 August 2017.
  20. ↑ "Plays with conviction: the power of prison drama". The Guardian. 14 May 2009.
  21. ↑ "Gladiator Games , Crucible, Sheffield". The Guardian. 27 October 2005.
  22. ↑ "Hobson's Choice, Young Vic, London". The Guardian. 3 July 2003.
  23. ↑ "Theatre Review: HOBSON'S CHOICE – Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester". Frankly My Dear UK. 6 June 2019.
  24. ↑ "Review: Hobson's Choice at Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester".
  25. ↑ "Hobson's Choice review – saris, acid house and a Salford Cinderella story". The Guardian. 6 June 2019.
  26. ↑ Sarah Hemming (28 May 2021). "Playwright Tanika Gupta on her new drama about young Gandhi in London". Financial Times.
  27. ↑ "Stream review: Living Newspaper Edition 4 at Royal Court Theatre". British Theatre Guide. 9 April 2021.
  28. ↑ "Out West".
  29. ↑ "Living Newspaper Edition 4". Royal Court.
  30. ↑ "No. 58729". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2008. p. 17.
  31. ↑ Stephen, Phyllis (20 August 2018). "Lions and Tigers wins the James Tait Black Prize for Drama 2018". theedinburghreporter.co.uk.
  32. ↑ "BBC Radio 4 - BBC Audio Drama Awards, 2013 Audio Drama Awards winners - Tanika Gupta, winner of Best Adaptation from Another Source". BBC.
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