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Mistaken identity: Kiran Landa as Kamaljit, left, Anoushka Deshmukh as Surinder, Tommy Belshaw as Jim on the ground and Omar Malik as Tanvir. Pictures: Helen Murray Marriage Material Birmingham Rep ***** We might not all be the same colour, the same creed or have the same God, at least in name, but we have much more in common than we have differences starting at birth when we enter . . . the family. Good or bad, like it or not, that is where most of us start life’s journey and family is where it stays in Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Wolverhampton born Sathnam Sanghera’s celebrated first novel, directed by Iqbal Khan. We open in 1960s Wolverhampton, home of MP Enoch Powell’s constituency, when we first meet the Bains family and set out to track them to the present day, all in the confines of their corner shop. It is a broad canvas outside the open all hours setting, a time of political turmoil, anti-immigrant feeling was rife, Powell’s 1968 Rivers of Blood speech was resonating and, in Wolverhampton, there was a bitter two year battle for the Sikh bus drivers to have the right to wear turbans and beards with Sikh leaders threatening suicide if the council did not rescind the ban. Khan does well to inject what is going on in the outside world but keeps the tale grounded in the confines of the corner shop adding to the era feel with some nostalgic 60s music choices. Jaz Singh Deol plays Mr Bains, the Punjabi Sikh patriarch, whose dream was to leave his village and find a better life; founding a corner shop in Wolverhampton had achieved that. He seems a kind, gentle man who works hard for his family’s future but with heart problems that will be, quite literally, the death of him. His daughters are Wolverhampton born and Sikh in name rather than calling. The eldest is Kamaljit, played by Kiran Landa who is the more traditional daughter, happy to marry and settle down raise a family and with no ambition beyond eventually running the family shop, her father’s kingdom. Then there is the youngest, Surinder, played by Anoushka Deshmukh, who has a Black Country accent, is bright and her teachers, and eventually her mother, see A levels and beyond leading towards a bright future for her. She has ambition and a craving for knowledge and rebels against the remnants of Punjabi tradition – a modern teenager in a modern world.
Avita Jay and Jaz Singh Deol as Mrs Bains and her invalid husband
Both her parents seem to have a fear, or at least a mistrust of education, learning things you will never want or need, or is it a fear of raising your head just too far above the social parapet . . . who knows? Her mother is played by Avita Jay, who looks after her ailing husband and the shop and eventually persuades him that education for Surinder will give her, her chance, like the one he took in leaving the Punjab. After his death she is determined to run the shop . . . and marry off her two daughters - arranged marriages by an ultra-strict, traditional Sikh uncle. Whether to protect them, see them settled, tradition, honouring her husband’s heritage . . . who knows, but it did not go down well with the daughters as we were to discover. Then there is the shop assistant Tanvir, played by Omar Malik, who was taken in by Mr Bains. He is caring, hard-working and has fallen for Kamaljit and she for him which throws a rather large spanner in the arranged marriage works. An even bigger spanner is Jim, played by Tommy Belshaw, would be poet, would be being the limit of his talent, and current chocolate salesman, who falls head over . . . raisin filled bar for Surinder, or Sue as he calls her and she falls for . . . well, escape and the lure of the bright lights of London. Jim is . . . well not the romantic dreamer and knight is shining couplets he seems . . . Behind it all is Dhanda played by Irfan Shamji. Dhanda was helped by Mr Bains many years ago and is now opening his own shop . . .trying to convince his mentor it is not competition. He is a bit of a chancer, an opportunist and a bit of a hot head, a sort of Sikh equivalent of the know-it all, bar room bore. That sets the scene for act II, which to be honest takes a while to come into focus as a new set of characters arrive and it has the grey matter working overtime to catch up. We have moved on a generation and are met by Arjan, played by Jaz Singh Deol again, who is Kamaljit’s son. He is a successful creative director in London who has come back to the same family shop, est. 1965, after his father Tanvir’s death – remember him? Arjan, like the plot, has moved on, and his return, if only for the funeral, leaves him struggling with knowing who he is, his family heritage and his relationship with his fiancée, Claire, played by Celeste Dodwell.
Celeste Dodwell as Claire and Jaz Singh Deol as Arjan She is English and white - and that opens up a can of worms about cross-culture relationships and who Arjan is, thoughts that didn’t exist in cosmopolitan London but are stacked high on the shelves of a Wolverhampton Punjabi corner shop. The return of Surinder from the dead . . . don’t ask . . . adds another twist to the unravelling tale with Ranjit, played by Malik again, son of the now ancient, still rigidly opinionated Dhanda, showing the other side of Sikh success. While for Mr Bains it was to build a future for his family with Dhanda it was all about appearance, political ambition, wealth and status, showing the world he had made it, and Ranjit is a product of that, entitled, well-heeled, lacking any sort of empathy, brash, not overly bright and a poster boy for feckless. Arjan grew up with Ranjit but to call them friends would be a stretch . . . let’s leave it at acquaintances. Dhanda, walking frame or no, is still empire building, and has the Bains’ shop in his sights, Arjan wants to help his mother run the shop and has broken up with Claire, Surinder has returned. It is all leading to a climax, not so much a family at war as more unresolved conflicts, things that should have happened, or not happened, been said or not said with a new generation taking up the baton and taking on the family’s anchor, the corner shop. But it takes Surinder, away from the family for years, to calm the waters. She has made mistakes, a huge one with Jim, but has then made the best of her life, made a successful career, and returned to the fold with a worldly experience of life stretching way beyond the tins of beans and bread wrapped in brown paper and string to make it look fresh. The set and costumes, from Good Teeth is a splendid affair of roll on stands for the shop, roll off for the living room and if there is a criticism some of the accents of a couple of characters were a little too strong, we goreh got the gist if not all the words at times, goreh being one of more than 50 words in the glossary of Punjabi words and phrases used in the production and helpfully included in the programme. Goreh is white people by the way, in case you were wondering The result is a vibrant, heartfelt play full of humour, laugh out loud lines, with some moving moments as we look at identity, heritage, the evolution and changes in culture the next generations will always bring in a society that is already changing as the spectre of populism infects the world. The ensemble cast all do a splendid job covering different roles, a teacher, reporter, a drunken racist, different parts, different ages, and although set in an Asian family, it is a universal play, a play about family, about tensions, about relationships, fitting in – it’s where most of just start out and family values will be on display to 05-07-25. Roger Clarke 26-06-25 |
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