Poetry, Music & Images

The Punkawallah’s Rope

Chrys Salt and Richard Ingham

Tickets: £12.50

Universal Credit: £8

Under 26s: £6

Wednesday 27 May 2026 : 2.30pm
Wednesday 27 May 2026 : 7.30pm
We are grateful to ARTS D&G for sponsoring concession prices on this event.
Arts D&G Logo

Could she ever have been something more than memsahib with her punkawallah?


Rooted in Chrys Salt’s highly regarded 2017 collection The Punkawallah’s Rope marking the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India and the India-UK Year of Culture, and born of her performance at the Kolkata Book Fair in 2016 and an immersive month in Kolkata and North East India, this multi-media performance explores the vibrant textures, voices, and contradictions of a continent both dazzling and daunting.

Through layered poems, evocative visuals and haunting instrumentals played by international composer and musician Richard Ingham on alto clarinet, bansuri, gopi yantra, aludu and tongue drum, The Punkawallah’s Rope poses the complex question: how can a middle-class white woman begin to understand and engage with this most challenging of continents?


  • Chrys Salt Biography Image

    Chrys Salt

    Chrys started her career as an actor appearing extensively in repertory, London’s West End, TV and radio.…

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  • Richard Ingham Biography Picture

    Richard Ingham

    Richard Ingham is a performer, composer, conductor and educator. He has given recitals throughout the world and…

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Duration: approximately 50 minutes straight through.

Recommended age : 14+

Descriptions of war

Praise for previous work

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