Lions and Tigers

Tanika Gupta’s epic drama pushes the boundaries of verbatim theatre, telling an important story in a fresh and authentic way never seen on stage before. A rousing piece of work. - Greg Walker, University of Edinburgh, UK

Based on the true story of Tanika Gupta’s great uncle, Lions and Tigers follows 19-year-old Dinesh Gupta’s emotional and political awakening as a freedom fighter pitting himself against the British Raj.

Drawn from family stories that the playwright herself heard from early childhood, the play teems with details drawn from her grandfather’s 500-page handwritten journal about his younger brother, and from the 92 letters written by her great uncle from his prison cell.

Set against the backdrop of negotiations between the leaders of the Indian National Congress and culminating in actions that shook the very foundations of the British Empire, Lions and Tigers challenges our assumptions about Indian independence and offers powerful new insights into the battles between the British lions and the Bengal tigers.

The play was first performed at Shakespeare’s Globe from the 23rd August to 16th September 2017, and was awarded the James Tait Black Prize for Drama in 2018. It is published here in Methuen Drama’s Modern Classics series for the first time, with a brand new introduction by Durba Ghosh.