The Empress by Tanika Gupta examines the exploitation of Indian servants in Victorian London.

As head puppeteer I had two jobs: to create the children and to evoke the remembered descriptions of India.

The children evolved first from paper, then rope and finally to burlap figures. The paper figures were the most effective in their texture but had the disadvantage of noisy movement and tearing. The burlap kept the texture without these problems. The children merged with the esthetic of the ship: crates, ropes and burlap bags.

Shadow puppetry was designed to evoke the nostalgic evocations of a remembered India – the Taj Mahal.

Details of cast and crew

Venue

2017

  • The Embassy Theatre as Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London

Photographer of performance images Patrick Baldwin

Performance

Laos with Korean internet volunteers - Photographer Patrick Baldwin Figure

Prosses

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Laos with Korean internet volunteers - Photographer Jenny Dee Laos with Korean internet volunteers - Photographer Jenny Dee

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