Harsleden High Street | A Play by Whole 9 Yards | CANCELLED

A café musical written by Abhishek Majumdar
Directed by Abhrajit Sen
Music – Adil Rashid, Dibyokamal Mitra & Meghatithi Banerjee
Dance – Rayan
Cast – Ananya Sen, Debopriyo Mukherjee & Suhotra Mukhopadhyay.
Artwork- Palash Chaturvedi

Harlesden High Street explores the lives, aspirations and frustrations of the working class through the voices and accounts of three Asian immigrants, interspersed with live street music. The play focuses on immigration and identity, with the understanding of the notion of home interwoven within the narrative.Existential crisis, discrimination, social hypocrisy, and religious myths are all examined and what emerges is a voice that stimulates and disturbs.

Playwright’s Note

Abhishek Majumdar 

“Harlesden High Street , is a place I lived on during my first year at Drama School in London. A street full of Jamaicans and Pakistanis , is where i first found myself discovering home away from home. The recipes came from a Pakistani lady who ran a spice shop and in the dark long winters of London, the lingering sense of history made its way into my own understanding of who i was and where i was coming from.It is about the working class struggles of common people, on a truly international street of this world, where the left-overs of colonial  history , remained and tried to make a living.
Harlesden High Street is a tribute to those millions who left home post decolonization . Who reached other shores , because there own homes had been ravaged by the perils of colonization and in time there own children , lived a half life. Half brown, half a colour unknown.”

“My world is in turmoil and I try to reflect that in my plays. Through words, music and action.Abhishek wrote this play in blank verses. I reworked on the text a little and reduced the poetry from the lines. In my design, through music and performance audience will discover the poetry in the working class struggles of  common people.

The play talks about immigration problems in a universal context. Its not about a particular street, people or religion.

What is home?
This is what the play intends to question. Question where one belongs. This is an evocative, complex play about displacement and optimism. This play is our song of hope. Our poem on home.”

Music of Harlesden High Street