Parv Bancil
| Parv Bancil | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Parveen Singh Bancil 7 February 1967 Moshi, Tanzania, East Africa |
| Died | 1 April 2017 (aged 50) Camden, London, United Kingdom |
| Residence | London |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation |
|
Parv Bancil (7 February 1967 – 1 April 2017) was a British-Asian playwright and actor.
Parveen Singh Bancil was born in Tanzania in 1967, where his mother died when he was two years old. The family moved to London. He began writing plays in 1985.
In 1986 aged 19, Bancil joined Hounslow Arts Co-op. One of four professional British Asian theater companies at the time, HAC was the only one to be telling stories from a 2nd generation British Asian perspective. While most were writing about partition, or leaving their homeland, Parv Bancil was writing about his world, and tackling issues that were affecting British Asian youth, such as gang culture, drugs, crime and identity. From 1986 to 1989 he wrote four plays: Curse Of The Dead Dog (1986), How's Your Skull Does It Fit (1987), Kings (1988) and Bad Company (1989). And he quickly gained a reputation as a dynamic, uncompromising and controversial writer, long before it was fashionable. He also acted in many plays, was the founder member of One Nation Under A Groove Innit, (an umbrella organization that produced comedy), was one half of a comic double act called The Khrai Twins, based on two bumbling drunken Southall gangsters, and a member of a comedy trio called the Sycophantic Sponge Bunch. He was also part of a spoof rock band called The Dead Jalebies. Formed in 1987, they toured nationally and opened for Asian Dub Foundation in 1991 at the Camden Underworld. They also supported the Voodoo Queens in 1993.
In 1991 he was the recipient of a BBC Radio 4 Young Playwright Award for his play Nadir, about a young second generation Asian man fresh out of prison. It was produced and directed by Frances-Anne Solomon, and performed by actors Rita Wolf, Nina Wadia, Neran Persaud and Ravinder Gill. "I wrote a play for BBC Radio set in the near future when Britain was being run by an extreme right-wing government. Everyone had to swear allegiance to the country and if they didn't adhere to British culture they were not welcome. The BBC tried to ban it until four producers stood by me and put their necks on the line for it. The critics said it was laughable, that it would never happen. But now we have an immigration policy and people do have to swear allegiance to the flag (the so-called Britishness test where applicants for citizenship have to demonstrate a knowledge and integration of British culture)."
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