The Rose And The Bulbul

A promenade performance

Coke Studio artist Arieb Azhar joins dancers and musicians to celebrate the unity amidst diversity expressed through the symbols of the rose and the bulbul (nightingale). The performance will take place on the Tea Lawn at Lauderdale House and Waterlow Park. The Rose and the Bulbul is co-produced by Kadam/Pulse and Luton Culture with the support of Grants for the Arts, Amal and Cockayne and London Communities Foundation.

The Rose and the Bulbul is a family-friendly performance with professional and community-based performers that taps into the love affair that humans have with creating gardens. It will be dedicated to the memory of MP Jo Cox: “We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us”.

The performance of dance, music and spoken word was inspired by the ideas that shaped the gardens at Stockwood Park, Luton. The title ‘Rose and Bulbul’ is derived from the significance of the rose as the symbol of beauty and perfection both in Persian literature and equally important in the English heritage as a Tudor emblem. The bulbul is the Indian equivalent of the nightingale which represents the woods and wilderness beyond the cultivated garden.

Storytellers, dancers and musicians will create an experience to bring alive the space of the garden and the audience will meet the Rose and the Bulbul, who come truly to understand their present only through a journey into each other’s past. Statues become dancers as the audiences are led in succession through a Mughal garden, a European walled garden and finally into open grounds, celebrating the synthesis of Islamic, Christian, Pagan and Hindu traditions. The Rose and the Bulbul is above all a story of love and acceptance.

The performance brings together the talent of outstanding young actor-writer Kamal Kaan (‘While the Water Weeps Next to the Water’, BBC Radio ‘Headline Ballads’ 2016); director Sita Thomas (Shakespearean scholar, Milkshake presenter and Bollywood dancer) and the popular choreographer-dancer Kali Chandrasegaram.