Ten Years East

With A Season of Bangla Drama nearing its halfway point, and our next show, Ten Years East, just over a week away, we’d like to tell you more about the exciting line-up we have brought together for you.

Farah Naz is a poet and Deputy Director of The British Bilingual Poetry Collective. She was part of the original East group, and some of her stories can be seen on our East Archive, as can John Heyderman’s remarkable story of his father’s escape from Nazi Germany: Two Gold Rings. John will be sharing a Jewish story, and Farah will tell a tale from the Muslim tradition.

Our two lead storytellers, both of whom have been at the heart of the East project since the start, will also be performing. Shamim Azad is a highly celebrated writer, poet and storyteller here in East London and in Bangladesh, while Sef Townsend, an internationally acclaimed storyteller, has told stories around the world, from refugee camps to festivals. They will be joined by Tasnim Siddiqa Amin, Daedalus’s assistant director and producer. Tasnim is a theatremaker, critic and artist, and has a script-reading of one of her own plays later today as part of the festival programme: Knotted.

The musicians include Michele Chowrimootoo, a Mauritian percussionist, Hasan Ahmed, a Bangladeshi musician and singer, and English folk musician Andy Bannister. Also part of the band is Daedalus’s artistic director, Paul Burgess, whose violin playing fuses English and Ashkenazi traditions.

Here’s Paul saying a few words about the project.

Ten Years East promises to be a really wonderful evening of entertaining stories and music that bridges cultural divides and celebrates our multicultural society. We really hope to see you there.

You can find out more and book here:

Ten Years East – book now!

A Season for Bangla Drama, which Ten Years East is a part of, is a flagship event for East London theatre and the wider British-Bengali theatre scene. This year’s festival, which is subtitled 20 Acts of Love, marks two decades of the festival with a varied programme of drama, dance, music, art and spoken word across multiple venues in Tower Hamlets.

You can see the listings and download the brochure here. And here’s the official festival trailer:

Do try to get along to as many events as you can!

We rely on donations to keep going. We receive no core funding and do a lot of unpaid work to keep the company afloat and fundraise for projects. Please consider making a one-off or a monthly donation.

Even a small donation makes a difference, and regular small donations would give us the security we don’t currently have.

Click to donate