Adapted by multi award-winning Tanika Gupta from the much-loved novel by Meera Syal, ANITA AND ME is directed by Roxana Silbert, with original music by the Ringham Brothers. Further casting to be announced and the professional company will perform alongside eight actors drawn from the local community.
This poignant coming-of-age tale follows Meena, a young girl growing up in the only Punjabi family in a 1970s Black Country mining village. Meena spends her days happily getting into scrapes with the other local children until one day the impossibly cool Anita enters her life.
Suddenly Meena knows exactly who she wants to be but is Anita all that she seems? Soon Meena's world is turned upside down as she is caught between two very different cultures.
ANITA AND ME paints a comic, poignant, compassionate and colourful portrait of village life in the era of flares, power cuts, glam rock, decimalisation and Ted Heath.
Meera Syal said,
“I’m delighted that Anita and Me is touring the UK. It is amazing to think of so many people engaging in this story - particularly young people, who like me as a child, may be wondering how they fit in!”
Created by producer Jenny King, The Touring Consortium Theatre Company celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2016 with highly successful tours of A Tale of Two Cities and Of Mice and Men.
Jenny King said,
“The company was created in 1996 in response to a need expressed by chief executives of several of the UKs leading touring venues for quality text based drama that reached out to new, young audiences as well as sustaining the interest of core theatre goers. Since its creation we have produced over twenty five productions and played to over a million people, involving some 25,000 young people in our workshops and creative learning programmes.”
