Golden Hearts

by Sudha Bhuchar

Directed by Philip Osment (2013) and Kristine Landon-Smith (2014, 2017)

A poignant look at the inheritance of loss in Asian families

Raj Rani’s heart is failing.
Lila sings at the bedside to soothe Edna’s troubles.
A girl is looking for her father’s hug.
Shiv has been given a second chance and an “upgrade”.

Golden Hearts began in 2013 when Sarah Weatherall, then Arts co-ordinator at St George’s Hospital Tooting, asked me to contribute to their 10th Annual Arts Event. It was instinctive for me to want to investigate ‘Asian men and their hearts’ and my family’s connection to the hospital.  

Since my beloved younger brother Ajay (aged 43) had died suddenly in 2009 and having lost my father (aged 49) in 1978 in a similar way, I wanted to explore the higher incidence of heart problems in our community, particularly among men. I interviewed and recorded patients from the cardiology department and was also inspired by the late consultant cardiologist Dr Charles Pumphrey, who had treated my husband and his two brothers, as well as my mother. During the weeks that I was developing the piece my mum (who suffered her first heart attack in her fifties) was admitted to St George’s A&E on 1st April. As I gathered stories from strangers, her heart was failing. She died on the 25th May and the piece I ended up writing was informed by her last weeks (she inadvertently ended up in the play) and a dear friend, Shiv Grewal’s remarkable recovery from cardiac arrest.

I also witnessed Sarah’s wonderful initiative of having singers and musicians at the bedside of patients.  Lila Clements and Japjit Kaur, both with awesome voices and a gentle manner, would fulfil patients’ requests which ranged from ‘Moon River’ to Bob Marley’s ‘Three little birds’ to Bollywood tear jerkers. These encounters were poignant and uplifting and are captured in my script.

Golden Hearts was composed of fractured, fictional narratives interwoven with verbatim material and underscored with song. The scratch performance was publicly shared on 19/20th June 2013 at St Georges and on 27 January 2017 in collaboration with the British Heart Foundation at Rich Mix, London. 

‘Life is one big story. Some people suffer. Some people go without difficulty. Who are you reporting to? Why you want to write my story? No….No…I don’t want to talk to you. I can’t take bad news. I keep away from other people’s stories.’- patient interviewee.

In 2016 I was appointed ‘Artist in Residence’ at East London Genes & Health (ELGH), the world’s largest long-term community based genetic study which will analyse the genes and health of 100,000 people of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin. East London boroughs have some of the highest rates of poor health in the UK and the risk of dying early from heart disease is twice as high among South Asian groups compared with the general population.

Tower Hamlets and Newham have the lowest life expectancy of all London Boroughs and I found my family’s experience of the legacy of heart disease mirrored in the families of people I met, who are the subject of ELGH’s study.

This autobiographical lens and my experience of deep loss enabled more people to share their stories and Golden Hearts was deepened in another iteration which was performed at a special event for ELGH at Rix mix in January 2017.

‘Our man is like a boatman in deep sea with his oar. Every story has got similarity. He is doing his job. Family in Bangladesh. Eats little and accommodation very simple.

Why you are living like this?

Have I come here to live like a heaven?’

-Bengali interviewee

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