The Birmingham Rep – until Saturday 5th July 2025
Reviewed by Nadia Dodd
4****
Marriage Material is based on the debut novel by journalist Sathnam Sanghera exploring the complex relationships within one Asian family when the obligations of cultural traditions clash with the modern opportunities of life in Britain.
Directed by Iqbal Khan, set in Wolverhampton, it centres on the Sikh Punjabi Bains family. Sisters Kamaljit and Surinder work in their father’s corner shop, living with one foot in their community and the other in 1960s Britain. The sisters’ lives go off in opposite directions, which has far-reaching consequences for future generations.
This is a tender and touching tale, the script has moments of sadness but is also sharply funny.
There is an impressive strong cast, several of them multi-roleing. Avita Jay is wonderfully acerbic as Mrs Bains, showing love through both insults and roti. She herself is torn as she sees the opportunities that a life in England can give her daughters but is also constrained by her roots and traditions.
Kiran Landa’s Kamaljit embraces the expectations of her cultural identity and then deftly echoes her mother’s caustic behaviour as her older self. Anoushka Deshmukh is initially wide-eyed innocence as the highly intelligent Surinder, who pushes to break boundaries.
Jaz Singh Deol is convincing as the traditional Mr Bains, focused on ‘izzat’ (honour) and marriage for his daughters. He’s also a very likeable character as Kamaljit’s conflicted son Arjan. Irfan Shamji is a huge presence as ‘uncle’ Dhanda, echoing the view that women belong at home and in the kitchen. Omar Malik shows great adaptability as the nervy, kind Tanvir and later wide-boy Ranjit.
Compressing a complex multi-generational story into a stage production is a challenge. The first half feels more developed, if a little too long. However, there are too many strands to get to the heart of every character in the second half. We have to assume why Arjan left his family and their shop. His return and internal struggle to reconcile his metropolitan life, complete with a one-dimensional white fiancée, is a complete play alone.
The set is endlessly flexible, using movable elements to take us from the street to the family home and the shop, complete with shelves stacked with egg boxes and period-appropriate cereal packets. Holly Khan’s (composer and sound designer) thoughtful sound design mixes traditional Indian music with bouncy 60s pop tracks that the audience around me were toe tapping to.
The family characters were instantly likeable, and I dare say relatable to a huge percentage of Sikh families. Surinder is one character within the first act that we grow to love, growing into an extremely clever 16 year old who has dreams and wants to become a ‘somebody’. A shame that she is missing in most of the second act which also feels like it could have been developed further although that would be the draw back as making the play much longer.
Overall, the play is a timely and much entertaining piece that does end with great hope