Anna Burnside reviews a lecture ‘engagingly told and atmospherically accompanied’.
When the Indian city of Kanpur, which used to be Cawnpore, rose up against the English occupation, the colonial forces came down hard. Townsfolk were gathered to watch the rebels being tied to a cannon and executed before their eyes.
Into this Margaret Atwoodesque scenario comes Niall Moorjani, playing a gentle storyteller trying to find a final narrative to explain the horrific situation they face.
As a tabla plays, they relive their role in the uprising under the adversarial gaze of the redcoat executioner.
This British officer, played by Jonathan Oldfield, pops out of the audience to ask awkward questions and put Moorjani on the spot about their motivation and the role of their hijra lover.
Oldfield’s interjection disrupts Moorjani’s version of the story and brings some shape and texture into what is otherwise a history lesson set to music.
An important history lesson, engagingly told and atmospherically accompanied, but a lecture rather than a piece of drama. The presence of a giant cannon on the stage and an interlocutor who dots around the auditorium are not enough to move an undoubtedly important and moving story into 3D.
Kanpur: 1857 performs at the Pleasance Courtyard (Beneath) at 15:40 until August 24, 2025 (no performances on the 12th or 13th).
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