Winner of the Pleasance’s Charlie Hartill Fund, Santi & Naz captures how ordinary life must continue even as world-shaking events shift everything. Award-winning company The Thelmas return to the Pleasance for the Edinburgh Fringe following their critically acclaimed production Ladykiller, with a vibrant production that explores queer love, identity and loyalty, set against the backdrop of a country soon to be changed forever.
Best friends Santi and Naz live in pre-partition India. One Sikh, one Muslim, they have little understanding of how religion will divide them. As the political situation in their country worsens and the threat of separation looms large on the horizon, they take drastic action.
Santi & Naz remains playful and light-hearted, even as it explores history that is rarely represented on our stages. This complex, lyrical show is a touching and honest story of female friendship. It speaks to anyone that’s ever felt like they have no control over what’s happening to them in the world. It’s for friends and lovers, families and history buffs, and for those who know nothing about the Partition of India, but would like to.
afshan d’souza-lodhi comments, This show is deeply personal. As someone who has parents from both India and Pakistan, it feels important to tell intimate stories of friendship and love that were affected by the Partition. While the stories of partition often centre men, Santi & Naz purposefully forefronts the experience of young women. Through playful humour, silliness, and a little music we give permission to audiences to fall in love with these characters and live with them through an important moment within history. I want audiences to question the narratives they are told about colonisation and Empire and have fun while doing it.
