One of Britain’s leading playwrights Tanika Gupta has laid down a marker, we feel…
THIS is a play that deserves to stick around – and by that we mean that in years to come future generations will find it as relevant and powerful as we do now.
Tanika Gupta has written a drama that transcends ethnicity, racism, and culture and religion – to stand for something larger, yet more profound and affecting – and that in time, ‘A Tupperware of Ashes’ might come to be seen as far more than simply the sum of its parts – and not be dismissed casually as just ‘a British Asian drama’.
It is a Queen Lear for our times and as British as the Malvern Hills.
It is the Asian experience of a generation that made it writ large – weaving ethnicity, racism, culture and religion-spirituality so into the fabric of the drama that you don’t see these as ‘issoos’, as you might in some contemporary drama.
Meera Syal, as the central character of Queenie, is sublime and utterly brilliant – embodying the ageing and degenerating mother-of -three to perfection – a combustible mix of vulnerability, arrogance and aloofness.
In her late 60s, she has simply started to lose it.
The once proud and thriving London restaurateur (and possessor of a much coveted Michelin Star) sees and hears from her late and much loved husband Ameet (Zubin Varla) – some of these ‘ghost’ scenes work better than others but overall they do communicate a sense of Queenie living in her own head – and to hell with the rest.
That might not be entirely fair, but she is the product of her own success – independent, feisty, smart and focused. The only counterbalance is a dear and similarly widowed friend – Indrani – played marvellously by another actor at the very top of her game – Shobna Gulati. Yes, there is humour thoroughout not just with Indrani as a foil.
When the issue of Queenie’s welfare arises – led by a very believable Raj (Raj Bajaj) as the oldest one – suggest she go to live with them, each in turn, to keep her out of harm’s way – she denigrates the idea, feeling she has never been better and can go on, as she can, in her big house all alone and driving anywhere, whenever she wants.
The fact that she burns food on the stove, routinely forgets things, all point towards a dementia and an affirmative Alzheimer diagnosis.
Gupta delineates the family dynamics for the most part well – though she leaves the inherent sibling tensions to the latter half of the second half, perhaps surprisingly late, when in the beginning, the siblings all agree and there seems little tension between them.
Raj is an English teacher with a long-term wife or partner – the unseen (as are other partners of the siblings) – Krishna, who fails to live up to Queenie’s expectations; the classic mother-in-law failing – Krishna has never been quite good enough for her Raj; with Krishna expecting and already under pressure at home, Raj snaps…
So, too does youngest and doctor daughter Kamala (Natalie Dew); her mother becomes nasty and vindicative towards her as the dementia becomes more pronounced. Kamala is a little underwritten and the same could be said of middle son – Gopal (Marc Elliot), gay, a lawyer and well settled with a long-term partner, he feels a bit of an empty vessel between Raj and Kamala.
Dr Young (Stephen Fewell) and Nurse (Avita Jay)
In fact, only Raj is given a troubled back story and it impacts his relationship with both his mother and late father directly. The precise contours of the slippage into teenage petty criminality are not covered – and while it’s easy to overlook this, when there is so much richness elsewhere – you do wonder how ‘a nice boy’ like Raj went off the rails a bit, ended up somewhere else for a while and still feels very sore about it all.
But these are not major points of criticism, because Gupta’s Queenie is well sketched, believable and has a very clear trajectory which you might well predict… the title does give it away. Some will recognise and relate to immersing of the ashes in what is a foreign land to the children.
Gupta has covered a lot in the space of the two hours or so, and in doing so, has given a vivid and rich picture of first generation life – with one scene between Ameet and Queenie just after their marriage in Kolkata and their decision to migrate… particularly affecting.
There is still much to be explored and that dialogue between those Asians who migrated and their children born elsewhere is only just beginning, really, where it can.
Performed on a relatively spare set with steps to an imaginary sea or other imaginary dropping off points and directed by Pooja Ghai, this is poignant and completely worthy of the talent behind it.
This is an important and vital play and we hope it will have a life far beyond the here and now – Syal has gifted us something significant and touching – we should all honour that and Gupta’s writing by seeing it, if we most possibly can.
It’s ambitious and reflective and deserves to be widely seen not just here, but abroad too – both for the particular and the universal. (Sailesh Ram)
ACV rating: ***** (five out of five)
All pictures: ©NationalTheatre/Manuel Harlan
Top picture: Gopal (Elliott); Kamala (Dew), Queenie (Syal), Indrani (Gulati), Raj (Bajaj)
Listing
‘A Tupperware of Ashes’ by Tanika Gupta from (September 25) to November 16, The Dorfman Theatre, The National Theatre, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PX
More info/booking: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/a-tupperware-of-ashes/