February 2001
Lyric Hammersmith Theatre | UK Tour to Leicester Haymarket, The Hawth Crawley & The Gantry Southampton

Kiran, a young British Asian actress from London, is recruited by an Indian film director to play Shola, a Mogul Antigone. But the death of her screenwriter aunt throws her life into turmoil by putting her into direct conflict with her Indian cousins and forces her to grapple with communalism as it spills over into her life.

Set against the Bombay riots of December 1992 in which an astonishing 46 people were killed, this is a contemporary reworking of the ancient myth, Antigone; still relevant to our times, particularly in a South Asian context where communalism continues to divide us. Stories emerge from the ashes of the fires that engulfed Bombay.

River on Fire was shortlisted for the 2002 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.