House of the Sun
House of Sun was adapted for the stage and presented in London by Tamasha Theatre Company at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 1990. It was the first Asian play with an all Asian cast and production team to be staged in London.
Voted Critic’s Choice by Time Out magazine London.
Adapted by Tamasha Theatre Company in 1996 for the Saturday Play on BBC Radio 4.
Decades before, at the time of Partition, the residents of Sadhbela were Hindu refugees fleeing Sind into India, from a newly created Pakistan. In Sadhbela these Sindhi refugees, their fortunes drastically changed, live closely together, speaking of their homeland nostalgically.
After Bhai Sahib’s dire announcement, life is tense for Mrs Hathiramani and the other residents in Sadhbela until a monsoon squall finally blows in a new planetary order. By then however, the planet Saturn’s sojourn in the House of the Sun has influenced some lives irreversibly.
‘…her descriptions storm the senses…with its unexpected vein of humour and skilful intermeshing of many lives, it is .. splendidly successful …’
Times Literary Supplement, 21st July 1989.
‘Vibrant, emotional, crowded…a colourful soap opera, its character broad, its crisis prolific…’
Sunday Times, 2nd July 1989
‘..a sensitively crafted exploration of a community…individuals emerge from the action, and it is to these credible and three dimensional characters that we respond’
The Independent Sunday, December 1989
‘…a richness in the storyline and in the telling. In all ways a revealing book.’
Glasgow Herald 24th June 1989
‘renders complexities with superb craftsmanship.’
Yorkshire Evening Post 27th July 1989