Guards at the Taj

After a critically acclaimed 2022 season, National Theatre of Parramatta (NTofP) is proud to present the national tour of Guards at the Taj. This heartbreakingly humorous work from Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Rajiv Joseph (Broadway’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) will embark on a national tour from 3rd September, with a strictly limited return season at Riverside Theatres from 12th to 14th September 2024.

Winner of the 2016 Obie Award for Best Play and the 2016 Lucille Lortel Winner for Best Play, Guards at the Taj is an exploration of beauty and power, autocracy and resistance, and of conflicting loyalties, where friendships are tested and broken by extreme circumstances.

Set in India in 1648, Guards at the Taj follows best friends and guards in Hindustani ruler Shah Jahan’s Imperial Army, Humayun and Babur. Humayun, a sternly loyal second-generation civil servant, feels compelled to follow orders to appease his father, whilst a sensitive and inquisitive Babur is more sceptical. Tasked with standing guard over the newly constructed Taj Mahal on the night before it is revealed to the world, guarding is the last thing on Babur’s mind, leading Humayan with him as instead they bicker, reminisce and daydream.

Subsequently, when they are both ordered to do the unthinkable, to ensure the beauty of the Taj Mahal is never rivalled, the stoic Humayun and imaginative Babur must confront what loyalty, friendship and following orders truly mean to them.