Mercurial Takeover: Oxford Girls

Ibbani and Firdous are two of six Oxford Girls who are placed in group counselling while students at the University of Oxford. We discover the dissimilarity and community they find in one another in an institution that has so long defined Britain’s politics and inequality. Debuted in 2021 to a sold-out Oxford audience – from Tamasha Theatre Associate Company, Haldi – Oxford Girls scrutinises university life, identity, sisterhood and mental health.

In a voice that is most authentic to our work – think ‘Chewing Gum’ meets ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ – Oxford Girls questions who is an “Oxford Girl”, and who is not? In a microcosm of university life that tackles class, sexuality and family, through dialogue, monologue, poetry and Indian classical, this contemporary stage drama wants the audience to experience the dissimilarity and community of being South Asian in Britain today; relevant now more than ever before. This is a ‘Haldi’ debut production, led by co-artistic directors Neetu Singh and Amira Izhar.

Amira Izhar is a Bengali-Moroccan producer based in Bristol and Neetu Singh is a Punjabi working-class director and writer from Hackney, East London based between East London and Cambridge. Neetu & Amira were two of very few working-class South Asian women reading English at Oxford, and quickly realised their desperation to create theatre that is real, raw, fun and honest. Haldi was consequently founded on values of community, South Asian sisterhood and a fire for important and inclusive storytelling.

Content to consider: Themes of mental health, depression, anxiety, self image, body image