Niall Moorjani on Kanpur: 1857

I wondered if you could start off by telling me a bit about the inspiration behind the play? 

The play explores the 1857 uprising in Kanpur, India, which was part of a series of quite intensified spates of violence from Indian Rebels towards the British Colonial forces. It's a story that mattered a lot to me because it's Indian history – and I'm half Indian – and also part of British/Scottish history. I felt compelled to start writing about it and to explore a fictionalised moment of something very real.

Why were you drawn to the medium of theatre to tell this story?

I think it's that capacity [of theatre] to transport people to places that aren't immediately obvious to them. My character, an Indian rebel, is strapped to a cannon and is being interrogated. So you can take the audience on this journey, where they are exposed to this story of colonial oppression and violence that is nuanced and presented in a different way. You get to challenge people's ideas of what colonialism is, and looks like, which maybe helps them join the dots differently.

Speaking of joining the dots, do you think there is an awareness gap in the UK – and specifically here in Scotland – about the role we played in colonialism?

Oh, profoundly. It is very important to me that the British officer is a descendant of Highlanders who went through the Clearances. For me in Scotland, we have not even begun to accept our role in colonialism. Something we are incapable of squaring is the fact that we disproportionately benefited from the [British] Empire. As somebody who grew up with an immense amount of racism as a mixed person, to be hit with, 'But there's no racism here,' and 'We were the oppressed ones, not the oppressors', is immensely frustrating. I am Scottish, but it doesn't mean we can't accept that part of who we are. It's worth confronting our actual past as opposed to a mythologised version of it.

A reckoning with empire is clearly a key focal point of the play. Are there any other messages you’d like an audience to take away?

At this particular moment in history, the immense nuance that comes with the human condition. The British officer in the play is not a straightforwardly evil, cartoonish villain. He's representative of a far more accurate version of the past. In our day-to-day lives, some of the biggest monsters we have aren't necessarily James Bond villains. They're in our everyday lives. They're in our politics. For me, trying to highlight that and trying to give that sense of nuance, as well as giving accuracy and rigour to this moment in history, felt really important.  

Did the writing process help you tap into that nuance? What did you learn from it?

I learned that theatre is this immensely flexible, durable, brilliant space in which you can bring in so many different ideas and distil them into something hopefully very entertaining. I've learned more about myself and my own sense of morality, and sitting in the messiness, and the nuance and the complexities of what I think is right and wrong. I've also learned, quite horribly, just how repetitive colonialism is, and [have seen] the parallels with what is happening in Gaza. But even though it is horrific, painful and terrible it is also absurd. And absurdity deserves mockery. And this play is very funny.

How else would you describe the play?

I would say it is explosive, darkly comic, and thought-provoking. But at its core, it is about a person telling their story – it’s not purely documenting a process of oppressed people throwing off oppressors. It’s so much more multifaceted than that. My character is also in love with a hijra, who we would (by Western standards) consider to be trans. So, a trans love story is also at the heart of everything.

Does that detail feel significant?

The more we can normalise these stories the better. I mean, at the moment, it's not normalising, we’re challenging. But it is totally plausible that my character would have fallen in love with a hijra. So someone might disagree with it, but that doesn't mean it's not historically accurate or true.

What are your hopes for this play as we look ahead to August?

Obviously, I'd be lying if I said reviews don't matter. I'd be lying if I said what the industry thinks doesn't matter. But the notion that you can make something that, as a person of colour, other people of colour can come and see and hopefully feel represented by or inspired by is a huge driving force. The ability to make work that challenges British or Scottish versions of colonialism, particularly pertaining to India – I feel immensely privileged to have that platform.

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Kanpur: 1857, Pleasance Courtyard Beneath, 30 Jul-24 Aug (not 12 or 13) @ 3.40pm, £10-15