Curve Theatre Leicester – until 24th February 2024
Reviewed by Amarjeet Singh
3***
I was lucky enough to be able to catch Nikolai Fosters rendition of Hanif Kureishi’s iconic and ground-breaking screenplay which was brought to Curve in 2019, and was blown away by it. Nicole Behan’s interpretation of My Beautiful Laundrette unfortunately did not have the same impact. Set in South London during the Thatcher years, it’s a gritty tale of forbidden love between Omar and Johnny, divided by colour, culture, class, crime, and crisis, can they find a way to connect despite these barriers.
Kureishi’s writing is poetic, hard hitting and is presented against original music composed by the Pet Shop Boys’ along with additional music from the 80’s, but the balance of this is off, in this production because the space was quite claustrophobic. The set was crammed full of various pieces, so the scene changes were fast and choppy. There was not enough time to appreciate the music and the ‘down time’, absorbing stillness and movement. There was not enough time to fully absorb the end of the last scene, the music, the moment and then move into another.
Hareet Deol was excellent as Salim, smarmy, sleazy and thoroughly unlikable. Kammy Darweish played Uncle Nasser with aplomb, booming boisterously until his luck runs out. Gordon Warnecke plays the role of Papa with pathos; all were reprising previous roles with relish. Lucca Chadwick-Patel’s portrayal of Omar lacked authenticity; word perfect I struggled to understand where his emotions lay in relation to his characters journey. Sam Mitchell played Johnny to perfection, every nuance and facial expression was spot on.
My Beautiful Laundrette is an important and relevant piece of theatre. It can and will endure. There were some stand out moments in this production. The fight scenes were impressive and there were some tender moments, but they were fleeting for what is essentially a complex love story