Theatre stages Asian drama

The Leicester Haymarket Theatre is to stage the first Asian community play at a leading city-centre theatre following Arts Council concern that cities with large Asian communities are not attracting them into theatres.

But Asian audiences going to the production next month will find that it challenges key aspects of their culture, most notably the treatment of girls.

The play, The Pandavas in Leicester, staged by a local amateur cast, all of Asian origin, will explore the difference in the treatment of boys and girls in Asian families, focusing on such themes as boys being allowed out late while girls are not, and arranged marriages. There is an instruction in the play, written and devised by local people, to commit a female infanticide as an exaggerated metaphor of how the sexes are viewed.

Employing a full range of dance, colour and physical theatre, it depicts famous characters from an Asian epic - wife, warrior, wise man and soothsayer - as they look into the future. Thousands of years later, people's hopes and fears have changed - and yet basically they remain the same.

David Tse, a resident director at the theatre, said yesterday: "We are exploring things that will challenge the Asian community, and this may well come as a shock to some of the older people from the community in the audience."

In Leicester, 26 per cent of the population are of Asian origin; but, according to Mr Tse, they tend to go largely to events in their mother tongue, usually involving song and dance, "almost things that you would see in India".

The Arts Council move aims to attract them to city-centre theatres to see productions staged in English.

The Asian theatre initiative at the Haymarket is partly funded by the Arts Council, and has also received pounds 10,000 from Marks & Spencer. Roger Corlett, the store's manager in Leicester, said: "This particular project reflects the community in which we trade."

Isobel Hawson, drama officer at the Arts Council, said the organisation wanted to see the Leicester Haymarket become a centre of excellence for Asian theatre. She said the council originally intended that a new regional black theatre be set up, but research showed it would be better to use an existing regional theatre and foster closer links with the local community.