The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2023 - Issue 34

bitetheatre I t is 1887, the year Queen Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee, and 16-year-old Rani Das (Tanya Katyal), a young, hardworking and empathetic Ayah (nursemaid) to an English family, arrive at Tilbury Docks after a long voyage from India to start a new life in Britain. Her travelling companions are Hari (Aaron Gill), a young lascar (Indian sailor) and Rani’s love-stricken admir- er, Abdul Karim (Raj Bajal), and Dadabhai Naoroji (Simon Rivers) who immediately gives an impression of his educa- tional intellect and passionate stance of the oppressive and invasive colonisation of his home country by the British. What ensues is a brilliant collective performance of a chro- nology of their life journeys encompassing reflective reali- sations, surprising revelations, fateful meetings and hopeful and unscrupulous interactions, with various colourful char- acters and set designs that keep the audience gripped from scene one. The play spans 13 years, in which Rani’s journey stems from the voyage ship deck to her disembarking at Tilbury Docks, to various living situations and many dire life circumstances, interspersed with Queen Victoria’s royal goings-on at Wind- sor Castle, the embracing and hopeful Ayah’s Home on Jewry Street and a tavern for the lascars. This is interwoven within an endearing love story that grips our hearts and attention. The scene opens with a set design of an enormous circle pres- ence in a dimmed light. It takes up the entire stage visual but is lit in sections to reveal some interacting characters behind it on a mezzanine-type platform. This opener quickly trans- forms into a ship’s deck with deckhands singing heartedly whilst undertaking their tasks. This uplifting picture sets the scene for the excitement of what is to come. When everybody disembarks the ship, Rani’s employers cru- elly dismiss her right there at the docks, much to her pleas of reminding them that they had promised her a job once they reached Britain. They tell her she is no longer needed as they already have a nursemaid in their British home, claiming they’re giving her back her ‘freedom’. “I am an utter stranger in this country. Why did you lie to my mother? Where will I go? Where will I work?” Alone in a foreign country with nowhere to stay and no live- lihood, the deckhands offer to look after her and take her to Lascar Sally’s tavern. They introduce her to the scraggy but shrewd Sally, who runs the establishment. It becomes appar- ent this is where the lascars relax, drink heavily and heart- edly, and perhaps solicit a female companion while ashore during work shifts. An ensuing scene takes us to Windsor Castle, where Alex- The Empress Photography by Elle Kurtz @RSC