‘A London Lark Rising’ is a dramatised walking tour being brought to life by writer Dr Anu Kumar Lazarus and former diplomat Lisa Honan, with two performances coming up this weekend. The Walking Play takes audiences through sites across the heart of London to showcase famous historic characters that depict a shared British Indian history.
Playwright Anu Kumar Lazarus, a London-based doctor who is also a dancer and Yoga teacher, shares: “Last year, I wrote a huge play about the history of the East India Company wandering around London. When I finished, I realised it was too big for the stage and decided to put it on the streets it had been inspired by.
“After going on Lisa’s ‘The East India Company London Walk’, I decided that she would be a perfect partner to collaborate with. She is hugely knowledgeable as the ex-Governor of Saint Helena Island, a British Overseas Territory governed by the East India Company for 200 years. So, we set about to rework her walk and dramatise it.
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“The really great thing is the Indian characters that we bring to life in the streets of London – alluding to the fact that without India, England would not look like it does today.”
The Walking Play is a 90-minute promenade performance, recounting the history of the East India Company – the trading company which lay the foundations of the British Empire in India – in some of the places where the events actually took place. With the help of artists in period costumes, the tour is intended to transport audiences back to the facades of the 16th century to delve into how today’s London was shaped by a shared past with India.
‘A London Lark Rising’ has received the backing of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Skinners Livery Company for performances to be staged during the summer period in London over the course of three years. The allocated funding also includes Honan doing non-dramatised walks of the City of London for schools to bring the history of the Empire to life for students.
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“We walk between the sites where the East India Company had a footprint as I tell the history of the Company, from the courtyard where it first began in the 17th century and how it changed what the world ate, drank, and wore through its trade with India, Indonesia, China and points beyond,” explains Honan, a City of London Guide who was awarded a CBE for services to international aid.
