The Estate

Adeel Akhtar is continuing to carve out a line in morally ambiguous roles after his performance last year in Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard  and his angsty Prime Minister in Black Doves.  This time he plays Anghad Singh who is a mid ranking shadow minister when we meet him, eyeing party leadership after a sex scandal.  

He believes he represents change, as he tells and retells his story as the son of a Sikh baggage handler, gradually sharpening it at each retelling.  What he is less explicit about but becomes clear over time, is that  he went to the same elite schools as his white British colleagues, his dad made good (giving shades of Sunak) and eventually became a property magnate and a slum landlord too.  Just as he makes his move to become the leader of the party, his father dies, leaving all his estate to Anghad and none to his two sisters.  Anghad thinks he deserves the money and the position and fights for it.  

With multiple themes, this play looks at the political estates, showing the fingers on the scales that should balance democracy, showing how the privileged buddy system operates and who is the 'right sort'.  It touches a little bit on the issue of race but doesn't really get into the currently somewhat vexed issue of race and Britishness which I think could have been explored a bit more.  In this case, being the right sort comes down to money, the right schools and being ready to threaten to dish the dirt.  But this is also a family drama, which also pulls in a commentary on the treatment of women . I loved the hints of the father lurking in the background all the time too. So, there's a lot going on but so far so good.  

Strong performances from all the cast, particularly Akhtar as Anghad who is engaging, sharp and funny even as we see how far he is prepared to go for his ambition. The production design is fab, with a deceptively simple set which seamlessly morphed from offices to a sumptuous home and back again. The performances were well directed too, and were visible everywhere, including the cheap seats which is always appreciated.   

One thing I didn’t like was the overlapping speech; it might be me getting old but it often made it hard to follow the speeches.   My biggest gripe though is just how much was being packed into this script which meant it became overloaded and trying to do too much at once and skipping over things that could have borne more exploration.  So whilst this is definitely worth seeing for the bits that are individually very good indeed, the whole thing together was somewhat unsatisfying. But, as this is Shaan Sahota's first play, I think that it can be forgiven, and I look forward to see what she does next.