Tibetan Inroads is set entirely in Tibet. The first half tells a timeless story of sexual desire thwarted by cruel oppression but with the second half the action moves startlingly into the present and becomes a striking political parable. Tibetan Inroads was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 29 September 1981, with the following cast:
- DORJE, a blacksmith - Kenneth Cranham
- GENYEN, Jamyang's wife - Sharon Duce
- TASHI. a monk, Dorje's brother - Mark Wingett
- ABBOT - Fred Pearson
- MOTHER. of Dorje and Tashi - Carmel McSharry
- NEIGHBOUR - Sharman Macdonald
- SINGER, her daughter - Madeline Church
- BEGGAR - Phil Daniels
- JAMYANG. a landlord - Paul Brooke
- CHONGUP - brigand - Phil Daniels
- PASANG - brigand - Fred Pearson
- WIFE, of the brigands - Sharman Macdonald
- TWO WHORES - Carmel McSharry & Madeline Church
- KASHOG - Paul Brooke
- TUNG, PLA radio operator - Fred Pearson
- SHAI, PLA propaganda officer - Sharman Macdonald
- CHANG, PLA 'barefoot doctor' - Madeline Church
- TONDRUP, a young monk - Phil Daniels
- SURVEYOR, PLA - Paul Brooke
- OTHER Parts - Colm Daly
Directed by William Gaskill
Designed by Roger Bourke
Lighting by Jack Raby
An earlier version was performed by students of Dartington College of Arts' theatre department in February, 1980. Mythanks to the actors and production team, especially those in the original workshop: Guy Roderick, Debbie Levy, Mike Hulls, David Hynes, Diana Howlett, Sian Webber. Bush Hartshorn, Katherine Cole. Rupert Button and Rosamund North. And to Steve Paxton for choreography, Roger Bourke for design, and to my co-director, Joe Richards. and Graham Green -especial thanks to the last two for coping with me on our research trip into the Himalayas.
Tibetan Inroads was performed by Troupe on 29 February 1984 as part of the 1984 Adelaide Festival.
'Stephen Lowe has moved from his native Nottingham to the Tibetan region of China in the late 1950s. The flight of the Dalai Lama to India is the historical crux of a beguiling, coolly related narrative about the People's Liberation Army, with its organisation, electricity and reflex ideology bearing down on the life of the village. However remote the setting, Mr Lowe discusses through the fate of Dorje, the black-smith, the price paid in human terms for what the party machine calls progress. It is a strange but purposeful piece.'
Michael Coveney, Financial Times
'Stephen Lowe's extraordinary new play is inspired by an epic clash of ideologies in 1950 when Chinese Marxism pierced the closed door of theocratic Tibet, where time had petrified in a medieval stasis.'
Nicholas de Jongh, Guardian
Tibetan Inroads is published in Divine Gossip & Tibetan Inroads, Methuen, 1988
