Themes Activities

• WHAT IF... ACTIVITY

  The following exercise will help students think a little bit more critically about Queen Victoria’s views and complicity in British Colonialism. This exercise will take 20 minutes. You will need the Act 2, Scene 4 resource and something for students to write with.

  • In groups of three, ask the students to read through this excerpt from Act 2, Scene 4.

  • Instead of Abdul replying to Lady Sarah saying, ‘Forgive me if I have spoken out of turn ma’am’ - invite the students to (individually) as Abdul, write a completely unfiltered response to Lady Sarah and Queen Victoria. It can be a speech ranging anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

  Some jumping off points may be to elaborate more on what Abdul says to Queen Victoria about ‘feeling is not the same as experiencing ma’am’, maybe a response to the comment that ‘Slavery has been abolished’ or Lady Sarah’s comment that the Queen’s duty is to bring ‘light into darkness’.

  • Invite the students to re-read the scene in their groups. 

  • What is the most effective way to communicate to someone completely ignorant on these issues in an effective way?

  • Encourage the groups to share their responses with the rest of the class. Allow space for reflections. Is it enough for someone like Queen Victoria to have good intentions? Compared to Hari fighting for workers rights, Abdul seems in a very privileged position, could he do more? Is Abdul brave? What can he lose by speaking out like this? 

• THE JOURNEYS WE MAKE ACTIVITY

  It is important to me that this is not just a play about Queen Victoria, this is a story about immigration, and to show how Indians and Black people were travelling and living in the UK long before the 1960s and the Windrush... - Tanika Gupta

  Many of the characters begin their story by arriving by boat to England, where they faced much hardship often borne from racism and prejudice. Tanika wanted to tell this story in order to show that Indians, and Black people were present and living in British History, long before the 60s and familiar events like the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush Ship.  

  The following activity will help students to reflect about their own journeys, and their predecessors, and how it connects with the characters' journeys. A hall would be ideal for this exercise or alternatively you can push tables and chairs to the edges of the room to make a space where the students can move. You will need the Act 2, Scene 15 resource. This exercise will take approximately 30 minutes.   

  • Invite the students to think of the floor of the room as a map of the UK. You can create shared reference points i.e the space nearest the wall with the clock is by Scotland. This chair is by Ireland. This jumper on the floor represents Wales. This is Kent.  

  • Ask the students to go and stand where they live now. Note if the students are clumped together. 

  • Invite the students to go and stand where they lived 5 years ago. Has anyone moved? Ask the students why and how they travelled. 

  • Now ask the students to reimagine the room as a map of the world. Use the walls if need be. Find shared reference points, and encourage the students to include any important places that may have been forgotten.  

  • Ask the students to stand where they were born. Allow time for questions and reflections.  

  • Now invite the students to stand where their parents/caregivers were born. Or alternatively they can choose a character, or imagine their care-givers/grown-ups birthplaces. Have many of the students moved? Can they imagine what that journey would have been, and what it would have been like? 

  • Now, ask the students to stand where their grandparents/caregivers or characters' grandparents may have been born. How might their journey have been different? Easier or more challenging? Would they have had similar or different reasons for moving? 

  Challenge the students to reflect on these journeys. Did they discover anything unexpected about themselves or their friends? Is their sense of identity linked to where they live, or where they were born?

  • Now invite the students to get into groups of four and read the Act 2, Scene 15.

  • Ask the students to each assign themselves a character in the scene, Dadabhai, Abdul, Rani or Hari.  

  • Invite your students in their groups to Hot Seat interview their characters (ask the student to answer questions as if they were their assigned character).  

  A few question prompts: what does it mean to be British? What makes someone British? Why are you leaving/why are you staying? Where is your home? What does it mean to be an outsider?