Tara Arts

Who we are

Tara Arts - Connecting Worlds

Bringing together artists and audiences in the national home of multicultural theatre.

Tara Arts, the first Asian-led theatre company to be established in this country, was co-founded in 1977, by its current Artistic Director, Jatinder Verma MBE.

Tara Arts is committed to creating ‘Binglish’ theatre, fusing European and Asian theatrical approaches to reflect our modern multicultural realities.

Tara Theatre is the home to small scale multicultural theatre and is dedicated to bringing audiences, artists and communities together through its space and work.

Tara Arts’ decades of making cross-cultural theatre began on 25th August 1977, with an adaptation of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s anti-war play, Sacrifice - chosen in response to the racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar, a 17-year old Sikh boy living in Southall.

Sacrifice was produced at Battersea Arts Centre in south London. The company went on to develop a pool of Asian actors, writers and directors, created relationships with venues, received funding on a regular basis (since 1982), settled in a building (1983), and grew in stature, co-producing with the National Theatre, amongst others, and regularly taking shows on national and international tours.

In 1990, Jatinder became the first BAME artist invited to direct at the national Theatre – when he staged his adaptation of Molière’s Tartuffe with an all-Asian cast. The show’s national and international success led to other co-productions with the National Theatre.

2002 saw the culmination of 5 years work in the staging of a trilogy of plays, Journey to the West, about 20th century migration, in 9 major cities around the country. The three plays were presented on a single day and benefited from extensive local community participation.

The company marked its 30th anniversary in 2007 with the staging of The Tempest (West End & national tour), Slavery by Jonathan Payne (rural tour), When the Lights Went Out (primary schools) and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s Nowhere to Belong (arts centres and literature festivals); along with a large-scale performance in Trafalgar Square.

In 2008, the company went on to co-produce Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album with the National Theatre in 2009, touring the production nationally for 6 weeks after a sell-out run in the Cottesloe theatre.

In 2014 the company initiated a major 3-year strategic initiative for touring BAME theatre around a consortium of 8 national venues – Black Theatre Live - receiving funding from the Arts Council for this strategic initiative.

In October 2014, a capital award from the Arts Council along with the company’s own fundraising efforts ensured the start of construction work on the redevelopment of the company’s building. The new Tara Theatre was officially opened by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, on 1st September 2016.

Tara Theatre has to date won the following awards:

LONDON CONSTRUCTION AWARD 2016

THE STAGE SUSTAINABILITY AWARD 2017

NEW LONDON AWARDS 2017

It has also been shortlisted for:

World Architecture Festival Award 2017

Empty Space Peter Brook Award 2017

Over its four decades of continuous operation, Tara Arts has been responsible for launching the careers of many successful actors, writers and directors, including Ayub Khan Din (East is East), Sanjeev Bhaskar (The Kumars at no.42), Shaheen Khan (Bend it Like Beckham), Paul Bhattacharjee (Guantanamo, RSC), Sudha Bhuchar (Bhuchar Boulevard & Tamasha Theatre Company), Rukhsana Ahmad (Kali Theatre company), David Tse (Yellow Earth theatre company), the composer Nitin Sawhney and many more.

"One of London's most forward-thinking playhouses" 

TIME OUT

“Culturally omnivorous, theatrically adventurous”

THE GUARDIAN

“The Tara spell seldom falters”

FINANCIAL TIMES

 “A truly global vision - magical and always arresting”

DAILY EXPRESS