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Meena, played by Mandeep Dhillon and Anita played
by Jalleh Alizadeh. Pictures: Ellie Kurttz. Anita and Me
Birmingham Rep
**** NO matter the colour, creed, culture or
race there is one universal truth, one right of passage everyone has to
go through – the coming of age. And for Sikh youngster Meena it comes growing up
in 1972 in the fictional former slate mining village of Tollington,
somewhere in the Black Country on the way to Wolverhampton Her family are the only Sikhs and the only
Punjabis in the village, they are the them, if it comes down to them and
us . . . as we know it surely will. With little work, little money and a life set in
terraced cottages built for miners who, like the mine are long gone, the
future is hardly rosy for those breaking up for school holidays as our
story starts.
I must admit I have never read Wolverhampton-born
Meera Syal’s novel, nor seen the film, so the play, adapted by Tanika
Gupta, had to stand on its own two acts and in that it succeeded
admirably in its world premiere. This is another quality production
from Birmingham Rep, this time in conjunction with Theatre Royal
Stratford East. Mandeep Dhillon does a brilliant job playing
Meena, a girl half her age, injecting innocence, enthusiasm, rebellion
and uncertainty into the life of a girl just starting on the road from
childhood to womanhood. Meena, might be the
only Sikh in the village, but she is just the same as everyone else with
the same friends and the same passions, the same interests such as
Jackie
with its agony aunts Cathy and Claire – not that I read that either –
even down to the top selling edition in 1972 with the David Cassidy
poster. The problem she has is the clash of cultures
within her own family with father Shyam, played by Ameet Chana and
sari-wearing mother Daljit played by Ayesha Dharker embracing both
cultures with close ties to friends and family in and from India and
friends in Tollington. We meet Meena’s grandmother, Nanima, played by
Yasmin Wide, who comes over to help when Daljit is struggling to cope
with her new born son. There are also visits from Uncle Amman, played by
Chris Nayak, and Auntie Shaila, played by Kiren Jogi, along with their
two daughters, visits which demand dressing up in brightly coloured
dresses which make the sort of fashion statement Meena would prefer to
avoid making, particularly to Anita. Anita, is the eponymous character, two years older than Meena and the village bad girl who is fast heading towards becoming the village good time girl, a position currently held, mainly horizontally it seems, by her mother, Deidre, played by Amy Booth-Steel. Jalleh Alizadeh gives us a precociously sexy,
rebellious, arrogant Anita, with a hint of sadness and insecurity
beneath the hardened surface. The product of a broken home devoid of
affections she is the leader of the girls, idolised by Meena until she
starts to see who Anita really is. Leader of the boys is Sam, good looking, cool,
Tollington’s own rebel without a cause, and a babe magnet – or at least
appealing t Joseph Drake makes Sam a most unpleasant
character, racist, fascist, white supremacist, you name it and he is
probably it athough there is a hint that perhaps he has been created
rather than born, the product of a perfect storm of failed education, no
jobs, no prospects and no future, like the village he is living in.
When another Punjabi, Mr Bhatra, from the
planning department comes along to explain the village school will be
demolished and how a new motorway will link the village to Wolverhampton
local shopkeeper Mrs Ormorod, Amy Booth-Steel again, a Christian who
thinks sending Bilbles to heathens- i.e. non-whites in Africa – is the
only aid needed, leads the opposition but even she is outshone by Sam,
who goes full National Front, accusing immigrants of taking jobs and
opportunities expressed in a more colourful way of course. The real sea
change in Meena’s life comes after Sam ambushes Mr Bhatra and savagely
beats him up. Anita joins in the “Paki-bashing” and delights in
telling Meena about it, never grasping that you can’t just be racist
about “the others”. There is an irony when her younger sister Tracey,
played by Megan McCormick, is saved from drowning by Meena’s father,
presumably one of “the others”. There is plenty of humour and humanity in the
play particularly from Janice Connolly as Mrs Worrall, friend to Meena
and her family, supplier of jam tarts, and general community rock. Years
of stand-up as Barbara Nice, Stockport housewife superstar mum of five,
have honed her timing to perfection, polishing each laugh to a shine. Anita and Me also has plenty of music with would
be pop star Ned, played by Tarek Merchant, who is also musical director
by the way, on keyboards. Bob Bailey’s set of neat terraced cottages works
well with clever swivelling walls to create the inside of Meena’s house
and finally the dereliction of the terrace at the end as the houses are
cleared in the “modernisation” of the village. Director Roxana Silbert, the Rep’s artistic
director incidentally, avoids sentimentality. There is no moralising or
preaching. We just see the village as it was 40 years ago, and sadly
that is not too far from today. She has kept things moving along, with flowing
scene changes and, most important, tells Meena’s story, her tale of
Anita and Me, simply and effectively in an entertaining way. To 24-10-15 Roger Clarke
13-10-15
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o
Anita’s baser instincts - when he gets his motorbike.