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SAM THE GIANT AND THE OIL PRINCESS
Context Theatre (UK) and Lok Rehas (Pakistan)
Sam The Giant and The Oil Princess was a small translation/ adaptation exercise, working from Lok Rehas' dark fairytale-esque Punjabi play by Lakht Pasha, about the recent American led invasion on Iraq. Our challenge was to find ways to make the work relevant to a UK audience- how to translate the theatrical forms, languages, and characters which most of the audience may not be familiar.
The piece took us on interesting journeys- the original notion was to perform guerrilla style- hijacking a petrol station and performing on motorbikes and in novas. But in the excitement of big cars, we started to move away from the original concept. We re-evaluated the work, went back to the original and with the performers talked about their own feelings to the inherent politics of the piece. From this basis we started to devise a street theatre performance in Punjabi and English- with puppetry, storytelling and lots of audience interaction, where the audience have to decide the fate of the Oil Princess- who is being wheeled around in a shopping trolley by the mendacious Sam and his loyal assistants who try to pawn her off through dodgy wheeling and dealing.
'Ladies and gents. A prize treasure for sale today
A natural phenomenon
An exotic charm
SHE will LIGHT your fire
Bidders?
What every man wants
Get your motor running, your engine burning- you moving!
You'll never keep hold of her
Ladies- She'll get rid of your wrinkles.
She’s intoxicating!
A mirage on a barren desert- or a highway- or a road- or the leak from a barrel
She's in demand
You can't wash her off
She runs the world's economics!
Value? Valueless! Around the corner they are trying to sell her at 42p a litre but here you can have your very own lifetime supply, well your lifetime anyway sir!'
Context Theatre are working on other projects with Lok Rehas to find appropriate contexts for Pakistani performance in the UK. Sam the Giant was an invaluable laboratory exercise in our cross-cultural collaboration.
Artists involved:
Director-
Claire Pamment
Writer-
Jack Thorne
Performers-
Kelda Holmes
Chand Martinez
Paul Malcolm
Zam Nasreen
More on Lok Rehas (PDF)
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