In its 21st year, A Season of Bangla Drama’festival kicked off with a powerful new play, The Final Trumpet, written and produced by Bangladeshi-British artist Tasnim Siddiqa Amin.
Organised by Tower Hamlets Council in partnership with Queen Mary University of London’s Drama School, the festival showcases many events in the borough, home to the largest Bangladeshi population in the UK, making up 34.6% of the area’s residents.
Performed at the Brady Arts and Community Centre in Tower Hamlets, The Final Trumpet explores themes of displacement, heritage, climate change, and generational conflict through vivid storytelling and a rich blend of Bengali folklore.
Siddiqa Amin told EastLondonLines: “Before I became involved in this festival three years ago, I didn’t know places like this existed. I think maybe I saw like one or two Bengali plays before, like ever, and I see a lot of theatre. So it’s crazy to me that, the Bengali population, there are so many of us, but we are invisible in arts and culture.”
Lara Robinson, one of the directors alongside Yael Elisheva, told EastLondonLines: “I think that White Western communities, especially in London or, I’m from, Australia, we have a bit of an assumption about a sort of homogenous experience of Pakistani, Indian, Bangladesh, all that kind of area of the world… And so to have a specific Bangla drama theatre festival here is so important, because it’s making that much richer.”
The story follows a young girl, played by Analise Dias, and her mother, played by Ashwini Kinhikar, in Bangladesh as they navigate the aftermath of a devastating monsoon that destroyed their home, desperately searching for refuge.
As the story unfolds, a mother and daughter navigate a refugee camp and wrestle with plans to flee the country.
The daughter is visited by the Aleya spirits, who urge her to stay in Bangladesh and not make the dangerous journey abroad, while the white spirit of the Baroness encourages her to flee West, telling the daughter that she must first experience the Western way of life to gain any sort of power.
Siddiqa Amin told EastLondonLines: “I wanted to turn what I felt like the poison that was dripped into my ear from Westerners through the baroness, and I just think a really powerful way to do that is just have fun with it and turn it all into spirits and ghosts and make it really clear.”
Siddiqa Amin emphasised that the inspiration for her work is inherently political, driven by frustration with systemic injustices. The play opened with this character of “the woman on fire”, this powerful image represented herself.
“The woman on fire is honestly me, I have so much rage against injustice in the world and it is a constant battle for me to turn that rage into something beautiful and constructive,” she said.
Beyond heritage, Siddiqa Amin shared how her personal experiences of growing up working-class, being homeless, and struggling with mental health also informed her work.
These experiences gave her a vivid understanding of displacement and resilience, which she channels into her storytelling.
She said: “So with those scenes, yes, I’m talking about refugees, and I don’t know their experience in Bangladesh, but I took so much from my own experience, my pain, and that was in there.”
In Bangladesh, people are bearing the brunt of climate change, despite contributing almost nothing to its cause, accounting for less than 1 per cent of global carbon emissions.
Siddiqa Amin expressed that while Bangladesh is often mentioned in discussions about climate justice, she grew frustrated with how the country was treated merely as a statistic. She wanted to bring Bengali people and their country to life in a more meaningful way.
Robinson describes being drawn to direct this play, admiring Siddiqa Amin for embedding a deeply human story within the context of an environmental crisis.
She said: “From the moment we’re born and we exist, our earth deteriorates. And it’s a beautiful mirrored image that I was so drawn to in storytelling about any kind of environmental crisis. To put such a human story at the centre of it, I think, is the most effective way to reach people.”
The emotional ending of the play was followed by a Q&A with the cast and crew of the play, opening up a discussion among audience members.
When Kinhikar inquired about the possibility of a sequel, Siddiqa Amin responded: “Let me tell you what the sequel is: Get on the streets. Go and protest. And get together as a community and change. Let’s do something about it. That’s the next part of the story. I’m really hoping.”
