Post by joem on May 31, 2023 11:10:29 GMT
Caught this revival of a play by Harvey Virdi at the Theatre Royal Windsor (a new venue to me!) last night early in its tour.
This is a play aimed at British Asian audiences (though I am not and it appeals beyond its catchment area) since it deals with a family with issues, secrets and problems and how they cope with them (or not). Plenty of in-jokes, tropes and familiar cultural references which had the audience rocking in recognition. Even a few phrases in Hindi or Punjabi which had me worried at first but tailed off.
Starting off as a bright comedy with the central issues of Sunita a "difficult" unmarried older daughter reaching her 40th birthday and an absent father who is busy working in India - turns out for like 20 years. The awkward preparations for the celebrations (unwanted by Sunita) by her mum, brother and sister-in-law are complicated when mum invites her English builder to the party.....
Well-known actress Divya Seth Shah plays the mum (I last saw her in the film English Vinglish) and the whole cast is on good form and play well together - Rameet Rauli as the daughter-in-law has a particularly good comic touch and gets many of the laughs.
More thoughtful in its second half than it appears in the early scenes, this is a decent well-written play with ideas on family, self and - in its way - a celebration of positive multi-culturalism.
This is a play aimed at British Asian audiences (though I am not and it appeals beyond its catchment area) since it deals with a family with issues, secrets and problems and how they cope with them (or not). Plenty of in-jokes, tropes and familiar cultural references which had the audience rocking in recognition. Even a few phrases in Hindi or Punjabi which had me worried at first but tailed off.
Starting off as a bright comedy with the central issues of Sunita a "difficult" unmarried older daughter reaching her 40th birthday and an absent father who is busy working in India - turns out for like 20 years. The awkward preparations for the celebrations (unwanted by Sunita) by her mum, brother and sister-in-law are complicated when mum invites her English builder to the party.....
Well-known actress Divya Seth Shah plays the mum (I last saw her in the film English Vinglish) and the whole cast is on good form and play well together - Rameet Rauli as the daughter-in-law has a particularly good comic touch and gets many of the laughs.
More thoughtful in its second half than it appears in the early scenes, this is a decent well-written play with ideas on family, self and - in its way - a celebration of positive multi-culturalism.