The writers of Kanpur: 1875 speak to Jane Bradley after receiving their Scotsman Fringe First Award

The Scotsman

Kanpur: 1857  Pleasance Courtyard, various times, until 24 August  What we said: “Niall Moorjani’s play is beautifully written, full of a lyrical sense of the beauty of India and its culture, and of those moments when Indian and British cultures can share their poetry and music; both Moorjani and co-director Jonathan Oldfield deliver richly complicated performances. And when, in the end, the prisoner asks “How many Indian lives can one British life be worth?”, the question echoes down the ages to the present tragedy in Gaza; in what seems like one of the most important political dramas on this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, and one with strong and challenging Scottish resonances.

Transcript

00:00Fringe first winners, Kampur 1857, are here with me today. We've got Niall, Sodhi and Jonathan. Hello.

00:08Hello. Hi.

00:09So congratulations on your win first of all.

00:11Thank you very much. It means the absolute world. I think we're quite happy.

00:15I feel like we've had a baby. We're walking around as if we've just had a child.

00:19Can you tell me a little bit about the show?

00:22So it's about the Indian uprising and very specific events that happened at Kampur.

00:26For context, hundreds of thousands of Indians rose up against the British in 1857.

00:30Those who failed, the ringleaders were strapped to cannons and blown up in front of crowdsports to watch.

00:34The show centers on this sort of moment where my character, an Indian rebel, is strapped to a cannon and being interrogated by a British officer.

00:40So it's very dramatic in the States. Couldn't be higher.

00:43Yeah, and it's obviously, it's been pretty much a sellout, I think, throughout the run so far.

00:47Yeah, we've been doing really well. We've sold out most of our shows, which is lovely.

00:51Looking like we're going to sell out a lot more. So if you want to get tickets, get them now.

00:55Make your way through the storms.

00:57Exactly.

00:58And it's on at Pleasants.

00:59Yes, it is.

01:00Pleasants Beneath at 3.40 every single day.

01:03Great, thank you so much.

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