Goodnight Maharajah at The Cockpit

GOODNIGHT MAHARAJAH is a brand new stage production based on the extraordinary life of Maharajah Duleep Singh — the last King of Punjab and youngest child of Maharajah Ranjit Singh.

Created by Indofuturist cross-arts innovators NYA Company, this bold and dreamlike new work is coming to The Cockpit for an exclusive work-in-progress performance.

Berlin, 1893. Victor Duleep Singh is having a restless night. Haunted by the past, he sees visions of his estranged father — the Maharajah — emerging from an old picture frame. Over the course of the night, Maharajah Duleep Singh begins to speak. He recounts the journey of his life: being separated from his mother Maharani Jind Kaur, the loss of the Sikh Empire to the British while still a child, his unlikely rise as Queen Victoria’s ‘favourite’, and, after returning to his roots, the resistance campaign he orchestrated — one that reached across Europe and beyond. But how does the Maharajah’s version of events square with Victor’s own memories of his father’s neglect and abandonment?

This is a story about memory, identity, and the fractured legacy of the British Empire. With colonial histories and cultural inheritance still affecting contemporary diaspora, this innovative production explores the frictions between parent and child, nation and empire, truth and illusion. Blending traditional and experimental storytelling, GOODNIGHT MAHARAJAH unfolds through live electronics and the textured richness of Indian music, performed live on stage by professional musicians and a community chorus.