Contact
Raman can be contacted through Playwrights' Studio
Languages
Scots, Punjabi, Hindi, Shetland Dialect, an Understanding of
Urdu
Raman Mundair
Raman Mundair was born in Ludhiana, India and came to live in the UK at the age of five. She is a writer and artist and was educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Raman's work has been widely anthologized and received excellent reviews in publications including The Independent, The Herald, World Literature Today and Discovering Scottish Literature. She is the author of the play 'The Algebra of Freedom', and two volumes of poetry, 'A Choreographer's Cartography' and 'Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves'.
As a playwright Raman was awarded a mentorship with the Playwrights Studio Scotland in 2005. In 2007 'The Algebra of Freedom' was produced by 7:84 Theatre Company. In 2006 she collaborated with the National Theatre Scotland and the Òran Mòr on 'Side Effects'.
She was one of the 24 writers chosen by the Royal Court Theatre and the BBC in 2008 for their 24 Degrees project which nurtures and develops work by the 'next generation of promising new writers in Britain.'
Recent work includes The Incoming Project, commissioned poetry for the Ilkley Literature Festival publication - Conversations about Empires for the University of Edinburgh's Writing the North project, and a public art poetry installation: Secrets of the Green, Aberdeen.
In 2009 Raman was chosen as one of two British writers to
participate in the Word Express, Literature Across Frontiers
project (Word Express took 20 young writers from 12 European
countries by train through South-East Europe to Turkey where they
spent five days doing readings, exploring the city, meeting young
Turkish writers and then took part in the Istanbul Tanpinar
Literature Festival and the Istanbul Book Fair). In 2008 she was
appointed as a Scottish Poetry Library Poet Partner and was
nominated for the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Award. Raman
was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Award in 2007 and took up her
appointment as Robert Louis Stevenson Fellow at Hotel Chevillion in
Grez-sur-Loing, France in 2008. She has also been awarded the
prestigious Arts Council England International Fellowship at the
India International Centre in Delhi. In 2006 she was runner up in
the Penguin Decibel Prize for Short Fiction.
Raman has worked extensively for The British Council, delivering
her work in a range of venues from university lecture theatres to
street cafes, in countries including Namibia, Bahrain, Italy and
Sweden where she was Writer in Residence at Stockholm University.
She has been awarded several residencies and fellowships including
Scottish Arts Council Writing Fellow in Glasgow, Visiting Artist at
Flax Arts Studio, Belfast, and the inaugural Scottish Arts Council
Writer in Residence for the Shetland Islands. She is a sought after
facilitator of creative writing workshops and her client list
ranges from schools and universities to the British Council and
Amnesty International. Raman is a member of Scottish PEN.
As an artist she makes work that represents text and narrative in
a visual form. Her work has been exhibited at the Gallery of Modern
Art Glasgow, City Art Gallery, Leicester and the Kevin Kavanagh
Gallery, Dublin.
Theatre
'Side Effects' - a site/cast specific collaboration with
the National Theatre Scotland opened in August 2006 at the Oran Mor
in Glasgow and toured to Edinburgh and Dublin.
"From the off the charisma between the characters is obvious …
Mundair clearly has an excellent grasp over dialogue as everything
fits into place perfectly, to the extent where you get the feeling
that you're just eavesdropping on the group at the table next to
you on your average Saturday night out." Radio Telefís Éireann
(R.T.E. Ireland)
'The Algebra of Freedom' - was produced by 7:84 Theatre
Company and the text published by Aurora Metro. This production
opened at the Arches, Glasgow in September 2007 and went on to tour
nationally.
"There's a stripped-down elegance pulsing through Mundair's text"
- The Herald
"The Algebra of Freedom is a strong, important play… by [a]
fast-rising young British playwright" - The Scotsman
"Mundair's punchy writing … stands as a humane analysis of the
social pressures that could bear down on any of us and of the
difficulty of doing the right thing." - The List
"It's not unusual to find characters haunted by the past in plays
with serious subject matters, but this phenomenon is rarely
illustrated so boldly as in Raman Mundair's new play for troubled
political theatre company 7:84… strong performances and a
thoughtful script make for a respectful meditation on freedom,
guilt and forgiveness… [the play] is insightful and neatly
structured. In contrast to some 7:84-commissioned work, there is
room for the characters to breathe, not just to exchange stiff
lines of polemical dialogue." - onstagescotland.co.uk
"Beautifully worked…Mundair has an all-too valid point to make
about contemporary society's nurturing effect on reactionary kinds
of extremism." - The Stage
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