Passing at Park 90

I love this intimate space at Park Theatre. This time we had a simple set of a living room decorated for Diwali with the audience on two sides; it was almost sold out for this performance so there was a great buzz in the room.  

Rachel Singh (Amy Leigh Hickman) has an Indian dad (Bhasker Patel) and a British mum (Catherine Cusak) and she is having an identity crisis triggered by the failing health of her Indian grandad..  The family has never celebrated Diwali before and Rachel is determined to get it right.  Rachel is learning to put on her sari using a YouTube video and she has a checklist and instructions (including outfits)for the whole family, supported by her eager and very British boyfriend, Matt (Jack Flammiger).  Meanwhile,  Rachels’s brother David (Kisha Walker) is baffled by this determination to create something they never had. 

Mum keeps getting it wrong though, despite trying hard with shopping and food and navigating and negotiating between the other warring parties.  She forgets the matches, has the wrong colour top and then performs a Bollywood dance she has learned especially, to the delight of her husband, son and the audience, but to Rachels’s horror.  

 A family comedy drama, the play explores what is the difference between reclaiming your heritage and cultural appropriation.  Where is the line between appreciation, pastiche and parody?  How much is it right to recreate or reinstate a heritage that has been willingly lost by a previous generation? 

The performances are all solid and I liked the way that sympathies jumped around as the arguments raged and the issues were explored.  As Rachel insists on pointing out on more than one occasion,  Diwali isn’t Christmas, but the family dynamics of a get together were universal including a disastrous board game.   The row about micro aggressions pinpointed differences of attitudes really nicely.  And using music to illustrate the different approaches and the themes was a nice touch.  We have Yash, Rachel’s dad, who doesn’t really like the sitar but loves his rock music,  while Rachel is enthusiastic about the work of George Harrison; meanwhile David and his mum are dancing to a bit of Wet Leg.  A bit of a cultural soup then.  

Overall,  it’s a bit overlong, and could be sharpened up with some judicious editing and an increase in pace, but actually I spent a lovely evening in the company of this family despite, and maybe because of, all the arguments.   And I loved all the pretty lights at the end too.