Ensemble Festival: Mughal Miniatures – The Awakening (by Sonia Sabri Company)

Mughal Miniatures is upbeat and fun, with performers in sumptuous costumes creating vibrant and colourful mini worlds of dance, music, and puppetry.

A series of pop-up, living pictures evoke scenes of Indian princely courts and lush gardens, and the glory of the Mughal period with a contemporary twist, undercutting expectations and delighting and surprising passers-by.

We invite you to step back in time and join us at court to meet the feisty Queen; to dance as if no one is watching in the monsoon; to tame a cheeky peacock; to hunt in the forest; and to join in the procession of noble elephants. But everything is not as it seems, and our well-behaved characters have grown tired of their restrictive frames. With the help of you our audience they can break free not only of their pictorial frames, but also of society’s expectations.

Indian miniature painting of 9th and 10th century was hugely multicultural, drawing inspiration from many peoples and cultures. Fittingly therefore, as with all Sonia Sabri Company’s work, this project is about bringing different artists, forms and cultures into dialogue with each other and demonstrating their complementary nature, as a metaphor for our diverse society at large.

Ensemble Festival 2023 is part of At the Docks 2023 – a brand-new summer season of arts, culture, and events at the Royal Docks.