Santi and Naz are bestest-best friends living in a village in pre-partition India. One Sikh, one Muslim; they have little understanding of how religion will divide them.
As partition draws closer, the girls remain oblivious to the spreading social unrest and violence. They’re too busy stealing books, swimming in the lake and spying on Rahul (the local hottie). When Naz is betrothed to a tailor from the soon-to-be capital of Pakistan the threat of separation for the young women looms on the horizon. Bound by their love for each other we learn how far they will go to avoid the inevitable.
Santi & Naz explores female friendship, coming of age, and coming out set against the backdrop of a country soon to be changed forever.
Ahead of the show running at London’s Soho Theatre we chatted to director Madelaine Moore to learn more.
What can you please tell me about Santi and Naz?
Santi & Naz is the story of two best friends, living in a village in rural India. One is Sikh, one is Muslim and they live side by side quite happily until the threat of partition looms. Mostly they are busy playing at their lake, spying on local hottie Rahul and doing impressions of their favourite film stars, people in the village and community leaders. But when the betrothal of one of them to an older man and the rapidly approaching partition threaten to separate them, we see how far they will go to try to stay together. It’s a coming out and coming of age story essentially.
Guleraana (Executive Director of The Thelmas and co-writer of Santi & Naz) and I had talked about how Partition is so rarely taught in British history, and Guleraana always had wanted to find a way to tell a Partition story without solely focussing on the horror of the events themselves. I had been interested in exploring those intense teenage friendships that particularly young women tend to have, which often burn so bright in those formative years sometimes blurring the lines of friendship, so we decided to combine the two ideas.
I am not South Asian, so I felt a huge responsibility to make sure that I did my research and that I approached the material with sensitivity. I also made sure I built a team which was predominantly made up of South Asian artists to work with me.
I think now more than ever we all, but particularly young people often feel as though we have little control over our lives and this story shows two young people finding ways to stay resilient and most importantly together through a major historical event. I also feel that there is so much division in our communities that it’s vital that people consider how that division can escalate. Global current events, particularly the rapid rise of violence in the name of fascism and authoritarianism, is set to get worse before it gets better so it’s important that we consider how history has a nasty habit of repeating itself, and think about how our actions as individuals might contribute.
Where did your arts career begin?
I originally trained as an actor, and did that professionally for about 8 years before stepping away to teach abroad for a couple of years. I came back to the UK and did an MA in Applied Theatre to work with community groups. I worked extensively with young people, people experiencing homelessness or addiction issues, and most significantly within the prison system. It was through this work that I got some opportunities to direct professional work. I have still hung on to the prison work and I now split my time between that, my freelance directing work and co-running The Thelmas.
How do you reflect on your career to date?
It’s been a really good mix of good fortune and clear vision, but mostly it’s been about consistent hard work. I felt at the beginning I had a lot of seemingly disconnected interests: theatre, film, travel, politics, social justice, anthropology, but my Applied Theatre MA brought all those threads together for the first time. Beyond that, I’ve always gone after the things that interest me, without waiting for someone to let me do them. The way The Thelmas came about was through my frustration with the gender imbalance in theatre and started really small with zero budget at Camden Fringe in 2014. Since then I’ve learned as I’ve gone along and if I didn’t know how to do something, I’d work it out or ask someone. Every year in this industry I learn more and more about who I am as an artist, what I want and how I fit into (or don’t!) the larger eco-system… I become less apologetic about it too!
How does your own knowledge now impact on the work you want to create?
I want people to be entertained but in a way that also makes them think about something in a new way. I want them to want to go and talk about what they’ve seen in the bar after the show. I’ve always had a natural curiosity about the world and the people in it, and my prison work has definitely taught me that what you see on the surface is always just the beginning of anyone’s story. I’ve learnt to not judge and to look behind the stereotype and that applies to characters too. What is going on behind the behaviour in any given situation? What are the external pressures adding fuel to it? No one exists in a vacuum so let’s talk about how the world shapes us and our experiences. It’s fascinating and ultimately very grounding.
What keeps you inspired?
Again, my prison work - it keeps me honest because you see almost immediately how powerful theatre and making art can be - it’s also really hard to get away with anything vague, pretentious or bullshitty with those groups! But also I increasingly draw from film and visual art, real stories and history, travel and being outdoors. It’s a bit of a mindset thing rather than any one particular stimulus.
What was the first piece of theatre that had a big impact on you?
I saw Improbable’s Shockheaded Peter way way back and it absolutely gobsmacked me! I’d never seen anything like it and I knew that that feeling was something I wanted to be able to give others the opportunity to experience - it’s just now it’s as a director rather than as an actor.
I originally trained as an actor, and did that professionally for about 8 years before stepping away to teach abroad for a couple of years. I came back to the UK and did an MA in Applied Theatre to work with community groups. I worked extensively with young people, people experiencing homelessness or addiction issues, and most significantly within the prison system. It was through this work that I got some opportunities to direct professional work. I have still hung on to the prison work and I now split my time between that, my freelance directing work and co-running The Thelmas.
It’s been a really good mix of good fortune and clear vision, but mostly it’s been about consistent hard work. I felt at the beginning I had a lot of seemingly disconnected interests: theatre, film, travel, politics, social justice, anthropology, but my Applied Theatre MA brought all those threads together for the first time. Beyond that, I’ve always gone after the things that interest me, without waiting for someone to let me do them. The way The Thelmas came about was through my frustration with the gender imbalance in theatre and started really small with zero budget at Camden Fringe in 2014. Since then I’ve learned as I’ve gone along and if I didn’t know how to do something, I’d work it out or ask someone. Every year in this industry I learn more and more about who I am as an artist, what I want and how I fit into (or don’t!) the larger eco-system… I become less apologetic about it too!
I want people to be entertained but in a way that also makes them think about something in a new way. I want them to want to go and talk about what they’ve seen in the bar after the show. I’ve always had a natural curiosity about the world and the people in it, and my prison work has definitely taught me that what you see on the surface is always just the beginning of anyone’s story. I’ve learnt to not judge and to look behind the stereotype and that applies to characters too. What is going on behind the behaviour in any given situation? What are the external pressures adding fuel to it? No one exists in a vacuum so let’s talk about how the world shapes us and our experiences. It’s fascinating and ultimately very grounding.
Again, my prison work - it keeps me honest because you see almost immediately how powerful theatre and making art can be - it’s also really hard to get away with anything vague, pretentious or bullshitty with those groups! But also I increasingly draw from film and visual art, real stories and history, travel and being outdoors. It’s a bit of a mindset thing rather than any one particular stimulus.
I saw Improbable’s Shockheaded Peter way way back and it absolutely gobsmacked me! I’d never seen anything like it and I knew that that feeling was something I wanted to be able to give others the opportunity to experience - it’s just now it’s as a director rather than as an actor.
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Photo by Paul Blakemore |
What do you want an audience member to feel after they've seen Santi and Naz?
I would love them to want to go and learn more about the partition and how much it impacted the world today. I’d also really like people to feel like they want to go and call their best friend and tell them they love them.
Santi & Naz will be at Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London, W1D 3NE from 21st Jan - 8th Feb
Tickets are available from https://sohotheatre.com/events/santi-and-naz/
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