Spending three years in an Indian slum to research her book, Behind The Beautiful Forevers, gave Katherine Boo the experience to encapsulate the differences and innate similarities between first world and third world problems, bridging the economic and cultural divide between the two, and with the upcoming stage adaptation at the National Theatre it will get a new audience for the Pulizer-prize winning book. Bringing the microcosm of the Mumbai slum to life as a west end play, and capturing the keen eyed sentiment of the book to the constraints of the stage, the production has a lot to live up to, but it’s definitely one of the more interesting new plays opening in London over the coming months.
It’s set to open at the National Theatre on the 10th November 2014, giving the adaptation a little over two months onstage before closing on the 14th January 2015. You’ll be able to catch the show at 7:30pm, Monday-Saturday, as well as at 2:30pm for the matinee on Wednesday 19th November, Saturday 22nd November, Saturday 13th December, Wednesday 17th and 31st December, Saturday 3rd and 10th January and Tuesday 13th January. There are also Sunday 2pm matinees on the 14th December and the 4th January. Tickets for Behind The Beautiful Forevers range between around £15 to £35.
The story is based on Katherine Boo’s novel of the same name and centres around the lives of the inhabitants of the Mumbai slum as India’s global ambitions continue to swell, despite the onset of global recession. With a lake of sewage on the one side and the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on another as the owners of the land, the inhabitants of the makeshift little shacks having got much on their side, but that doesn’t stop them having dreams for the future.
During the course of the play, you’ll get to know Zehrunisa and her son Abdul, who’s aim is to recycle enough rubbish to be able to get a house that they own themselves outside the slum, as well as little Sunil who just want to grow up to be as big as a thief called Kalu. Asha, on the other hand, is the unofficial “slumlord” and plans to steal enough government anti-poverty funds to become a ‘first-class person’, while her teenage daughter Manju has ambitions of becoming the slum’s first female college graduate.
The Behind The Beautiful Forevers cast has been confirmed to include Hiran Abeysekera, Gavi Singh Chera, Stephanie Street (Attack The Block), Meera Syal (The Kumars, Doctor Who), Anjana Vasan (Fresh Meat) and Shane Zaza (The Da Vinci Code, Doctor Who).
The non-fiction book has been adapted for the theatre by playwright David Hare, who recently wrote and directed the Johnny Worricker spy TV film, Turks & Caicos, for BBC. It’s being directed by Rufus Norris, who picked up an Oliver Award for Caberet.
