Out of the Margins

'In a gentle way, you can shake the world' - Gandhi.

Anupama Chandrasekhar's opening annotation says it all: "And I believe, he did." 

Tackling one of the formative moments in India’s history, the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, The Father and the Assassin was nominated for the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for Best Play (2022) and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (2023). A blackly hilarious drama coming back to the National Theatre this autumn, this is the tragic, comic, titantic re-telling of the Gandhi's killer, Nathuram Godse. Sometimes compared to Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, The Father and the Assassin is a funnier take on the brilliantly entertaining historical genre. 

There are wonderful insights into the play, the action, the characters and the language. This is about everyone's connection to Gandhi, but also the playwright's own: one of the marginalia reads, "My grandmother met Gandhi when she was 8 years old in Chennai (then called Madras)", and the note goes on to describe this personal encounter. 

"Every Indian school child can draw Grandfather Gandhi" is the final note in this well-annotated first edition, beside a delicate little hand-drawn image of Gandhi by the playwright. 

Given Anupama Chandrasekhar has previously faced calls to moderate her controversial work, does she feel there is a risk in taking a nuanced view of a moment so symbolic to Indian national consciousness? For a Guardian article she said, “What I take from Gandhi is that bravery is something that can be practised... I’m not the most courageous writer but I’m learning to be brave.” Ultimately, Anupama says she sees the purpose of her work as fostering the empathic connections that were lacking in pre-independence India – and still are today. “I want the audience to learn to listen to each other,” she says. “To understand there is perhaps a kernel of truth in what the other person is saying. Without listening, we can descend into violence.”