Should the National Theatre be staging a play about Indian independence, Britain’s brutal role in partition in 1947, and the murder of Gandhi? Of course it bloody should. As the country’s conversation pit, the NT absolutely has a duty to reflect all of our own and the world’s stories, not just the bits of British culture that send white theatregoers home smug, untroubled or - God help us - “proud”.
As it happens, author Anupama Chandrasekhar suggests that 20th century Indian politics and the savage moral turpitude of the British Empire echo broader global issues. Her play is charmingly and conspiratorially narrated by Shubham Saraf as Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse, whose sketchy background she reimagines to explore how fanatics, especially nationalist ones, are born. We, too, could turn into vehement killers, he smilingly tells us, “given the right circumstances”.
