The South Asian Playwrights’ Programme forms part of a long-term commitment from the National Theatre of Scotland to develop South Asian theatre artists and platform their work.
Delivered in partnership with Bijli Productions, A Play A Pie and A Pint, and Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland, the programme provides paid development opportunities for Scottish South Asian playwrights. Writers are supported to develop a new play with professional dramaturgs, actors and directors, before their work is licensed for further development and future production as part of A Play, A Pie and A Pint.
The programme was created in response to the specific barriers that South Asian writers can face in developing their craft and accessing professional production opportunities. It aims to address a history of marginalisation and systemic underinvestment in artists of South Asian heritage, while creating meaningful pathways for writers to develop their work and careers.
Following an open call, we are delighted to announce the two playwrights selected for the 2026 South Asian Playwrights’ Programme are:
Surya Elango and Niall Moorjani.
Surya Elango is a Glasgow-based radio producer and presenter in long form narrative audio, currently exploring inflections in global history. She is part of the Wyrd writing collective and her work explores the colonisation of the psyche, dogma, fate and missed moments. After ten years in-house at the BBC, Surya is entering the world of theatre and freelancing.
The Whole Room Is Sofa / This Is Not My Beautiful House follows a migrant family in Scotland as they navigate home, belonging, and the pull of aspirational Britishness, adapting to a new life and the bewildering "how did I get here?" ascent. We watch them grow, fracture and reunite, while grappling with shifting ideas of whiteness, brownness, Scottishness, Britishness, and the "confused desi" mindset that shapes them all.
Niall Moorjani is an award winning and critically acclaimed Scottish-Indian, non-binary and neurodiverse writer, storyteller and theatre-maker. Niall creates for both children and adults, dealing with themes of queerness, anti-colonialism, myth and legend. Their work has been published with Bloomsbury/ Methuen Drama, ‘Kanpur: 1857’ (2025), and Lantana, Rajiv’s Starry Feelings(2023).
In 1772 a young Scottish man sets out to make his name in the East India Trading Company. Meanwhile, 200 years later, a young (is 32 still young?) mixed-race person attempts to make a play that will finally kick-start their career. But before that, the young Scottish man meets a sensual and beguiling Sindhi Lord. And after that, the mixed-race person agrees to work with their very “straight” friend Cal.
Across time and space these two stories intersect and interweave to ask: what happens when cultures collide? And what happens when identity is something that can be bought, and, crucially, sold?
South Asian Playwrights’ Programme is a collaboration between the National Theatre of Scotland, Glasgow Lunchtime Theatre, Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland and Bijli Productions.
South Asian Project
The South Asian Playwrights’ Programme is part of The South Asian Project, established by National Theatre of Scotland in 2021 to enable the company to engage more significantly with South Asian artists and communities in Scotland, with an overall aim, over time, to develop new ideas for productions, forge new connections within communities and to reach new audiences.
