Narratives of Time will help reveal how a small group of people first kept Bengali drama alive when they first migrated to London.
The rich heritage of the East London Bangla drama scene is set to be recorded, archived, and shared publicly, thanks to an award of £75,361 to Tower Hamlets Council, from The
Since the 1960s, Bangla Natok (Bengali Drama), has helped Bengali immigrants in London keep their connections with 'back home'. Bangla theatre increased after the independence of Bangladesh, spurred by its role during the 1971 war in raising awareness and support for independence. It developed further in the 1980s and 1990s, and in the early 2000s, as part of drama festivals such as the annual Season of Bangla Drama initiated by Tower Hamlets Council in 2003.
Titled Narratives of Time, the new Heritage Fund project seeks to capture the rich evolutionary history of Bangla Natok in East London through oral history and research. Thanks to National Lottery players it will explore theatre, storytelling, playwriting, and community progression in East London from 1963 to 2013.
Narratives of Time will help reveal how a small group of people first kept Bengali drama alive when they first migrated to London. It will also explore experiences such as racism, decline of local industries, the closure of the docks, resistance, and rising unemployment.
Cllr Kamrul Hussain, Cabinet Member for Culture and Recreation, said: “Bengali drama in the East End did not develop in isolation. It is associated with factors such as interactions with mainstream theatre, socio- political influences from Bangladesh and elsewhere, and the multi-faceted heritage and changing landscape of East London.
“We are excited to be part of the Narratives of Time project which will help unveil the rich history of how a small group of people kept Bengali drama alive when they first migrated to London, and helped it grow over several decades.”
The project will recruit community participants, to be known as theatrical heritage researchers, who will be trained in oral history, theatre making, interviewing and archival research and will visit Tower Hamlets Local History and Archives, Queen Mary University Drama Department and London Metropolitan Archives, to gather contextual information from a wide range of sources.
The researchers will also blog, write about their progress, and engage with the wider public through the project's structured social media engagement programme.
The project will record the oral history of community playwrights, actors, producers, and directors and collect Bengali and English drama scripts and publicity material.
The outcomes of the project will be communicated to the wider community through exhibitions, digital material, and a drama performance. The project will end with a celebration at the Brady Arts Centre in November next year, as part of A Season of Bangla Drama 2026.
The Narratives of Time project will be carried out in partnership with Arts Without Borders
Posted on Wednesday 19th February 2025