Interview with Lolita Chakrabarti

In this interview, Amrita Dhar and Amrita Sen interviews Lolita Chakrabarti, the actress and award-win-ning playwright. Chakrabarti trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and has been on our stag-es and screens for over thirty years. Her acting credits include The Hunt (St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); Gertrude, opposite Tom Hiddleston, in Sir Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (RADA); Last Seen - Joy(Almeida Theatre), which she also wrote; Screw (CH4); Vigil (BBC1); Showtrial (BBC1); Wheel of Time (Amazon); A Casual Vacancy (BBC1/HBO); Criminal (Netflix); and Delicious (Sky One). Her writing credits include her adaptation of the Booker Prize winning novel Life of Pi, for which she won the Olivier Award for Best Play. She also adapted Hamnet, from the best-selling novel by Maggie O’Farrell, which opened for a sold-out run at the Royal Shakespeare Company, before transferring to London’s West End. Her debut play Red Velvet opened at the Tricycle Theatre, London, before transfer-ring to St Ann’s Warehouse in New York and to London’s West End at the Garrick Theatre. Chakrabar-tialso curated The Greatest Wealth (Old Vic), commissioning eight new monologues to celebrate the UK’s National Health Service. She also dramaturged Sylvia (Old Vic) and Message in a Bottle (Peacock Theatre/US tour) for Kate Prince.