Columbia Brings Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children to the Apollo

By Timothy P. Cross & Lisa Palladino

In an unprecedented collaboration, Columbia University and the University of Michigan are teaming up with the Royal Shakespeare Co. to bring Salman Rushdie’s allegorical novel, Midnight’s Children, to the stage and to the United States for the first time. University President Lee C. Bollinger, a strong proponent of the arts, has committed the University’s resources — pedagogical, financial and artistic — to support this new theatrical production.

Twelve performances of Midnight’s Children will be presented by Columbia at the historic Apollo Theater on 125th Street in Harlem from March 21–30. The play will be the centerpiece of an education and humanities festival that may include lectures, readings, discussions, student papers and film and musical presentations. The play will be presented in London in January and February and on the Michigan campus in Ann Arbor on March 12–16.

Midnight’s Children, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in Britain, is a complex work combining three main tales: the turbulent history of 20th-century India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; the saga of a Muslim family; and the story of one man, Saleem Sinai, whose telepathic powers allow him to communicate with other children born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the first hour of Indian independence. The play builds upon scripts that Rushdie wrote for a five-part serialization of the 1981 novel for the BBC; the project was canceled shortly before it was to be filmed in Sri Lanka because of political upheaval there.

The Midnight’s Children Humanities Festival

In conjunction with the RSC performance, Columbia is organizing the Midnight’s Children Humanities Festival, a month-long calendar of programs exploring the cultural, religious, artistic and social implications of Rushdie’s work and celebrating freedom of expression. Throughout March, the festival will examine the play and its contents from many perspectives. Prominent writers, filmmakers, scholars, journalists, critics, performers, religious and community leaders, as well as the general public will convene for events on the Columbia campus (in Miller Theatre, Lerner Hall and other spaces), in Harlem, and in other New York cultural venues, including the Asia Society and Symphony Space.

The festival calendar, while still in development, will include an Indian film festival and Indian music festival (in collaboration with the Asia Society), along with programs on the following:

• an interview with Salman Rushdie

• the creative process and Midnight’s Children from novel to play

• roundtables with writers whose work has affinity with Rushdie’s

• literature and literary traditions

• writers and oppression, censorship and civil rights

• political and historical context (colonialism, post-colonialism, 30 years of Indian and Pakistani history, political and personal identity)

• India, the myth and the realities (culture, politics, economics, religious diversity, Bombay as place and idea

President Lee C. Bollinger (right) joins author Salman Rushdie and Lady Susie Sainsbury, deputy director of the board of the Royal Shakespeare Co., at the announcement that Midnight's Children will be produced in New York and Ann Arbor, Mich. PHOTO: EILEEN BARROSO

One performance — the matinee on Tuesday, March 25 — will be reserved for local high school students, who will study the play and its themes in workshops in school. The workshops will draw on a unique four-way partnership: the RSC’s Education Department, students and alumni of the School of the Arts, selected graduate students teaching in Columbia’s Core Curriculum and Columbia’s Double Discovery Center.

Columbia’s Center for New Media Teaching and Learning and the School for the Arts is creating a Midnight’s Children website that will feature a range of online explorations and interactive learning experiences. The CCNMTL Midnight’s Children website will include regular updates on the Humanities Festival plus any new information about performances.

Special Alumni Packages

As part of this remarkable production, Columbia is inviting alumni to take advantage of discounts and special events that are not available to the general public. An all-Columbia alumni weekend is being planned for March 21-23 for which special packages will be sold.

Although the special alumni performance of Midnight’s Children on Saturday, March 22 , has already sold out, alumni are still eligible for 10 percent discount and preferred seating for other performances.

Alumni can purchase tickets to Midnight’s Children and Humanities Festival events by calling the Alumni Ticket Hotline at (212) 870-2537.

Related Links

• "Under Cover No More" Columbia College Today (Mar. 2003) • Midnight's Children Takes Apollo Stage (Mar. 2003) • “Columbia, Royal Shakespeare Co. To Bring Rushdie's Midnight's Children to the Apollo.” Columbia College Today (Nov. 2002) • “Columbia Teams with Royal Shakespeare Company to Produce Salman Rushdie's ‘Midnight's Children’ at the Apollo.” Columbia News Online (Sept 18, 2002) • Columbia University presents Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. • The Royal Shakespeare Company presents Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. • “A New York State of Mind.” Salon.com interview with Salman Rushdie. (October 1, 2002) • Featured Author: Salman Rushdie. The New York Times. • “Columbia Is Helping to Bring Royal Shakespeare to Apollo.” The New York Times (Sept. 5, 2002). • Royal Shakespeare Company Web site.