DICK WHITTINGTON GOES BOLLYWOOD Plays Tara Arts, Now thru Jan 5

Tara Arts presents DICK WHITTINGTON GOES BOLLYWOOD, written by Harvey Virdi, directed by Jatinder Verma and designed by Claudia Mayer, tonight, December 5th 2012 to January 5 2013. Press shows December 6 - 7.30pm & December 11- 7.30pm.

Hot on the heels of their enthusiastically received adaptation of Molière’s The Miser (Kanjoos) and building on the success of the sell-out smash hit of 2011’s panto Bollywood Cinderella, Tara Arts teams stage, film and TV actress and writer Harvey Virdi (Coronation Street, Bend It Like Beckham) with their director Jatinder Verma to conjure up another seasonal treat with music, melodrama and multi-coloured magic, this time with Dick Whitington Goes Bollywood.

All the fun of panto meets the glitz of Bollywood in this Christmas show with a difference. Tara Theatre is only ten minutes from Waterloo.

Jatinder Verma is co-founder and Artistic Director of Tara Arts, the pioneering cross-cultural theatre company which marked its 30th year in 2007 with a critically-acclaimed production of The Tempest. The company tours nationally and internationally, and co-producers with Tara Arts include The National Theatre. In 2009, Jatinder returned to the National with a co-production of Hanif Kureishi's new play, The Black Album. Author of The Story of Diwali, a book for children, Jatinder has also published several articles exploring the nature of modern cross-culturalism. His frequent work on radio and TV includes the Sony Award winning Ashes to the Ganges and the 3-part serialisation (with Claudia Mayer) of The Mahabharata (both for BBC Radio 4) and, for Radio 3, Renouncing India and Kashmir, the Flower of India.

Harvey Virdi is a veteran of British-Asian theatre but is perhaps best known for her role as Nina Mandal in Coronation Street. Her theatre credits include When We are Married, Romeo and Juliet, Square Circle, and Playboy of the Asian World (all for the Leicester Haymarket), Airport 2000 (Riverside Studios) and Jatinder Verma's production of Exodus (Tara Arts/BAC). In 2003 she played Mrs Peachum in a touring production of The Threepenny Opera for the Royal National Theatre and in 2004 was critically acclaimed as Maria in an Indian-themed production of Twelfth Night at the Albery Theatre. Her film credits include Bend It Like Beckham, Anita and Me, Thunderbirds, Bride and Prejudice, The Mistress of Spices, and Brick Lane. Television credits include Boohbah, Doctors and Whose Baby?

Tara Theatre is located at 356 Garratt Lane, London SW18 4ES (Earlsfield Station). The performance schedule is Monday to Saturday 7.30pm, Matinees - 3pm Dec 8, 15, 20, 22, 27 28, 29, Jan 3 4 & 5 and 1.30pm Dec 6 & 13.

Tickets: Evenings £16.50 (£14 concs); Matinees £12.50. Call the box office at 0208 333 4457 or visit www.tara-arts.com.