CHOTTO DESH
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre
9th and 10th Feb 2024

“Akram Khan Company is delighted to bring back its much-loved family-friendly production of Chotto Desh. Adapted by Theatre-Rites’ director, Sue Buckmaster, in 2015 from Akram Khan’s Olivier Award-winning solo and critically acclaimed DESH, this heart-warming story follows a young man trying to find his place in the world. In September 2023, it returned to capture the attention and imagination of a new generation of younger audiences.
Chotto Desh, meaning ‘small homeland’, draws on Khan’s unique quality of cross-cultural storytelling, creating a compelling tale of a boy’s dreams and memories from Britain to Bangladesh that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in the modern world.”

Review by Richard Lambert, 4 Stars

A beautifully crafted show, a coming of age tale of a boy who could never sit still for very long. He’s always fidgeting which annoys his father. With a mixed heritage background, our character in modern London doesn’t fit into his father’s reality of running a busy restaurant. With the threat of going back to Bangladesh and the ensuing struggle to survive our hero is a troubled mis-fit.

Danced beautifully by Nico Ricchini, as the boy who just wants to dance, this tale is very relatable. He remains in his room, practising, while his father fails to understand.

As a solo dancer on a big stage, this piece works because the lighting is elegant and the video fills the stage totally encapsulating the boy as he travels on his adventures through forests and far-away lands. Meeting animals and somehow, through the treetops, the undergrowth of the jungle and the urban life, surviving.

Such a relatable tale so well told through dance.

Photo credit: Pete Woodhead

Dancer | Nico Ricchini

DESH Artistic Direction and Original Choreography | Akram KhanChotto Desh Direction and Adaptation | Sue Buckmaster (Theatre-Rites)
Music Composition | Jocelyn Pook
Lighting Design | Guy Hoare
Stories imagined by | Karthika Naïr and Akram Khan
The grandmother’s fable in Chotto Desh is taken from the book
The Honey Hunter
Written by | Karthika Naïr, Sue Buckmaster and Akram Khan
Assistant Choreographer | Jose Agudo
Rehearsal Directors | Dennis Alamanos, Amy Butler, Nico Monaco
Grandmother’s voice | Leesa Gazi
Jui’s voice | Sreya Andrisha Gazi