Venue: ZOO Roxy (Venue 115)
Dates: 5-6 Aug (Preview) 7-29 Aug (not 15 & 22)
Time: 17:25 (Ends 18:15)

Tickets: £7.50 / £6 conc. / £5 preview
Box Office: 0131 662 6892
Online: www.zoofestival.co.uk

“Kalagora bestrides continents and celebrates cities as engines of creativity where dogs talk in hieroglyphs and where a man can be a moth.” – Ian McMillan, BBC Radio 3’s The Verb

Indian writer-performer Siddhartha Bose brings his acclaimed debut spoken word play to the Fringe, in the year Edinburgh looks east for inspiration. Kalagora is an explosive, experimental coming-of-age journey across three continents, splicing theatre, poetry, video and music by Bollywood composer Pankaj Awasthi.

From the street surrealism of Mumbai, ‘city of motion’, to London’s East End via Manhattan on Millennium night. Kalagora, the global wanderer, collides with a midget tobacconist, paranoid immigration officers and cross-dressing hedonists, observing the uncanny and grotesque at the start of the 21st century.

“We’ve overstayed our welcome. We’re illegal. We’ve worked shit jobs, invented social security numbers, scammed Homeland Security mercilessly.”

Siddhartha Bose was raised in Kolkata and Mumbai, spent seven years in the US and now lives in Hackney Wick. A multitalented poet, playwright and performer, he has been published in the anthologies City State: New London Poetry (Penned in the Margins), Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century (Bloodaxe) and The HarperCollins Book of Modern English Poetry by Indians (HarperCollins). His first book was published in 2010, and he was dubbed ‘one of the ten rising stars of British poetry’ by Times Online. He has performed at venues including Latitude Festival, Southbank Centre and Warwick Arts Centre.

Directed by Russell Bender (Ecole Jacques Lecoq, Bristol Old Vic, National Theatre) and produced by live literature company Penned in the Margins. Photos, video, Sid’s blog and much more: www.kalagora.com