Chris Eldon Lee reviews Khandan, which is at Birmingham Repertory Theatre until Saturday 7 June – before transferring to the Royal Court in London.
It’s a decade since Birmingham Rep had to cancel Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s previous play Behzti (Dishonour) when the theatre was besieged by Sikhs. This new play, Khandan (Family) is more likely to upset ardent UKIP voters.
We enter the suburban bungalow living room of the Gill family. Jangling Indian pop is playing on the stereo, the walls are decked with family photos, char is brewing on the gas ring and a bottle of fairy liquid by the sink tips you off that we might be in England. Punjabi Jeeto and her late husband arrived in the UK on a 747 in the 1970s. Jetto says she was ‘reborn at Heathrow’. But they found themselves sacrificing their lives; bringing up two children, and building up a corner shop business.
Now the children are grown and the old values are being challenged. Not only has her son Pal married a Birmingham blonde, he’s refusing to open the shop on Christmas Day. In fact he wants to close the family business altogether and start a more lucrative residential care home. Doesn’t he realise, objects Jeeto, that in Indian culture old people should be cherished by the family?
This play has an extremely long fuse, but the wait is well worth it. Bhatti takes time establishing the internal pressures of a transplanted family; the honour that should be paid to their patch of deadbeat farmland back in the homeland; the loyalty to be shown to a family member who’s fallen on hard times, and the urgency to supply grandma with a grandson. After the interval, she’s busy deconstructing dreams.
There are two strengths here. The issues she explores are universal enough to affect any family; and assume even greater angst when corralled by a traditional moral compass. But she’s also being very specific; deeply embracing her Indian audience members with gags a limey is never going to get.
Mother is the vortex, ruling her Westernised family with a stern finger. Sudha Bhuchar gives a fine portrayal of a woman who’s learned to adapt her governance to the new conditions…but still speaks only the truth. The audience really connected with her indomitable spirit and wily defiance. It’s a pleasure to watch her at work.
In a feisty cast of six, Rez Kempton’s drive for success really caught my imagination. He’s playing Jeeto’s son Pal, a guy who is desperate to do the right thing and dutifully accepts the punishment for his one mistake. He has the lean look of an essentially moral man wanting to make his way in the modern world. But he’s cornered by conventions beyond his experience.
Lauren Crace, as his beautiful wife Liz, also has a fascinating journey to make. She’s a mum-in-the-making who can’t make a baby. Her transformation from cute, home-loving blonde to a strong, newly independent woman is a lesson in subtlety on stage.
I arrived at the Rep expecting fireworks – but became entranced by the carefully laid slow burn of this play. Director Roxana Silbert handles the gear change from happy homily to a taut problem play exceptionally well and I came away (as I suspect the author intended) thinking deeply about the heritage ties that bind my own life.
Visit www.birmingham-rep.co.uk for information about Birmingham Rep.