Latest news with #MarriageMaterial
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
PATRICK MARMION reviews Marriage Material at the Lytic Theatre: Catherine Cookson meets The Kumars in a sweet Sikh sitcom
Marriage Material (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith) Nobody does family quite like Indians do. For sheer intensity of generational bonds, they are hard to beat – as we discover all over again in the new stage adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera's epic Wolverhampton-set novel Marriage Material. But what's really fascinating about the story of two Sikh girls in Sixties and contemporary Britain is its secret nostalgia for old-fashioned patriarchal ways. We start in a red-brick terrace among first-generation Sikh immigrants, Mr and Mrs Bains (Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay), running a corner shop and demanding that bus conductors be allowed to wear turbans. It's a formidably male-dominated culture and although their daughter Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh) is a plucky brainbox studying Thomas Hardy, her suspicious mother dismisses education as stopping people sleeping at night and making them 'force their toilet in the morning'. That line is greeted with howls of recognition, but the other daughter Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) makes herself a very happy marriage with hard-working, top-knotted Sikh-pride traditionalist Tanvir (Omar Malik). Indeed, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's stage adaptation works much better as a hymn to traditional Sikh values, and misses their dramatic edge in a modern-day second half where everyone is culturally adrift. What feels like a Catherine Cookson yarn of hard work and adversity winds up becoming more like a Kumars sitcom. White characters are painfully two-dimensional and there is some truly risible dialogue. Even so, Iqbal Khan's epic production has an irresistible sweetness. Jay nails the conflicted ambivalence of the Indian matriarch, while Landa takes up her baton as her shy but passionate older daughter who falls for Malik's proud young Sikh, and Deshmukh locates the pain of the younger daughter and her desire to escape. For all its faults, just like family, it commands our loyalty. Until June 21, then at Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5. The Beautiful Future Is Coming (Bristol Old Vic) Verdict: Smoke but no fire Rating: By Georgina Brown In the foyer of Bristol Old Vic, a newly planted field maple is flourishing, vivid green. Unlike the burnt, drowned landscape depicted by Flora Wilson Brown in this impressionistic, depressing play about climate change. The first of three tenuously related threads provides a trite historical backdrop. In 19th century New York, the patriarchal Royal Society rejects a paper about the greenhouse effect, penned by Phoebe Thomas's Eunice, corseted wife of supportive John (Matt Whitchurch), because she is a woman 'hobbyist'. The most absorbing strand is set in now-ish London, where Dan (outstanding Michael Salami) has fallen for his boss (Nina Singh). It's all teasing and sex until Daniel's mother drowns in a flood that, like the fires, are routine and catastrophic. Overwhelmed with fury and despair at a system which has allowed his mum's body to lie undiscovered, becoming hideously bloated, Daniel's inarticulate grief has a depth of feeling and eloquence lacking elsewhere. The least credible couple live in an imagined future (cue silly outfits). A heavily pregnant Ana (Rosie Dwyer) and her gormless colleague Malcom (James Bradwell) are scientists trying to germinate seeds in a rudimentary trough (unlikely). Cut off by a storm (as if), and now sharing their last flask of water (absurd — it has been raining for months), this is neither the place nor the time to bring a new baby into the world. The play's optimistic title suddenly appears bitterly ironic. 'How can you think about flooding in three years when now is taking all your attention?' someone asks. Which is perhaps Brown's point. With every day a firefight, fears about the future get sidelined. Director Nancy Medina's staging has an impressive fluidity with scenes gliding into each other through sliding panels. But the narratives fail to coalesce into a cohesive, satisfying drama. While climate change is indeed a burning issue, the play feels like a work in progress: all smoke and no fire. Until June 7. Marie And Rosetta (Rose Theatre, Kingston) Verdict: Raising the roof (of the church) Rating: We should all know about the pioneering gospel singer and guitarist Rosetta Tharpe, recognised by the musical cognoscenti as 'the godmother of rock 'n roll', a source of (acknowledged) inspiration for artists ranging from Little Richard to Johnny Cash, Elvis to Aretha Franklin. American playwright George Brant puts this forgotten heroine back in the spotlight she deserves. His play focuses on a life-changing moment: when Sister Rosetta invites a beautiful young gospel singer to join her on the road. Rosetta wants to get back to into the good books of the evangelic church, enraged by her raunchy secular songs with Cab Calloway in the Cotton Club. But first she has to teach Marie to put some swing in her voice and (more important) swagger in her hips. 'You can swing it for me, and I can church it up for you,' Rosetta cries. The magnificent Beverley Knight captures Rosetta's warmth and generosity, body and soul, encouraging Ntombizodwa Ndlovu's gauche 'shy violet' to open up like a passion flower, become bold and brazen. Bouncing off one another with energy and spin, their terrific talents combined, their powerhouse rendition of 'This Train' raises the roof, a duet made in heaven for, as Rosetta puts it, a God 'who don't want the Devil to get all the good music'. Set in a Mississippi funeral parlour, where the women are staying because black people were not permitted in hotels in the segregated South in the Forties, they rehearse for the first time before their tour to warehouses and hangars — the only places black folk can congregate unnoticed. The rehearsal over, the play loses its way and the rest of Rosetta's life — she married three times, lost a leg, had a stroke and, dirt poor, was buried in an unmarked grave — tumbles telling, no showing. But when this dynamic duo sing, the piece soars. In Kingston till tomorrow (May 24), then Wolverhampton, and Chichester. Also showing... This Is My Family (Southwark Playhouse) Verdict: Flat-pack family Rating: As a vision of domestic life, This Is My Family is an innocuously generic, flat-pack musical that feels like it could be knocked up from diagrams with Allen keys. First seen in Sheffield in 2013, Tim 'Calendar Girls' Firth's show is about a nuclear family in which the 13-year-old daughter wins a competition enabling her to take mum, dad and brother on holiday anywhere in the world. In typical Firth form (following Neville's Island), that means a wet staycation in a woodland. Dad (Michael Jibson) is a DIY-enthusiast who's a die-hard trier, Mum (Gemma Whelan) is an eyeball-rolling moaner, exasperated by his money-saving schemes. Their gothic son (Luke Lambert) lives in a kitchen cupboard, grandma (Gay Soper) is drifting into dementia and a randy aunt (Victoria Elliott) has a good gag about Wookey Hole. And they're capably led by teenage Nicky (Nancy Allsop), mixing Aled Jones with Roald Dahl's Matilda. Directed by Vicky Featherstone, the Royal Court Theatre's former boss, the production completes the B&Q look with Chloe Lamford's set of a fold-away fitted kitchen. But if you're hoping for more than flimsy sitcom stereotypes, you may be disappointed. Equally, it's perfectly inoffensive, slots together neatly and doesn't look too wonky. Until July 12.
Time Out
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Marriage Material
Sathnam Sanghera's 2013 novel, Marriage Material took its inspiration from Arnold Bennett's classic, The Old Wives' Tale, transposing the story of two sisters who work in their mother's draper's shop to a Sikh family in Wolverhampton. In it, he introduced readers to Kamaljit and Surinder, the two teenage daughters of the Bains family – and in a parallel narrative set in 2011, Arjan, who has returned home to his mother (an older Kamaljit) after his father's death. Now, it undergoes further evolution, as Sanghera's book is reimagined for the theatre by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti and directed by Iqbal Khan. But, as is often the case with adaptation, the move from page to stage proves a delicate balancing act – with flares of exquisite tension, as well as stretches that feel rushed and flat. The fact is, squeezing down a 336-page novel into under three hours is a difficult task. First, there are the obvious issues of space and structure, and then the subtler challenge of translating the author's tone into the dialogue and action. The strength of Kaur Bhatti's writing is that Sanghera's sharp wit comes through loud and clear. By merging Punjabi words with English dialogue, the script encapsulates the realities of a home for second generation children. At its best, it feels like a sitcom, dancing with spiky comedy unique to the family's experience and place. Add to this a killer ensemble cast, led by Anoushka Deshmukh and Kiran Landa, who play the sisters with unwavering energy and you've got a play that sends ripples of laughter around the audience, again and again. It is the personalities that make this adaptation; as Arjan, Jaz Singh Deol is full of sarcasm and raised eyebrows, while Irfan Shamji is captivating physical performer as Dhanda, aging him before our eyes with shaking hands and a quivering speaking voice. But, perhaps, the greatest character of all is the family's corner shop. In Good Teeth's set we first see its shelves hanging in the Bains' house. But, as the play unfolds, the shop's significance grows into something truly essential. Serving as the central hub of the story, the setting feels alive, witnessing births, deaths, abandonments, and marriages. The tales from past years linger within its walls, with the responsibility of preserving the family's legacy and keeping the shop open hanging over each new generation. And yet, we don't quite get the full effect of Sanghera's original, weaving story. In the novel, the events of the dual narrative play out simultaneously in alternate chapters. Onstage, however, these stories are split into two halves. It becomes less of an emotionally taut family mystery that we're desperate to piece together then, and more like two compartmentalised dramas. The second act in particular feels like it zooms through too many significant moments. Overall, though, this feels like a small niggle as Kaur Bhatti's writing digs into the specifics of the Bains family through the generations. Set to a backdrop of real-life events, including the 1969 battle for Sikh men to be able to wear turbans on buses, with the words of Enoch Powell ringing in the family's ears, and later racial tensions in the 2010s, the Bains are never allowed to forget their difference. In charting the personal alongside the political, Kaur Bhatti honours both the humour and weight or Sanghera's original; it is a resonant night if not a perfect one.
India Today
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Actor Emma Roberts paired opposite comedian Matt Rife in new film Marriage Material
Hollywood actor Emma Roberts and comedian Matt Rife are set to star in the romantic comedy 'Marriage Material'. Producers launched worldwide sales of the film at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival.'Marriage Material' will be directed by Trish Sie, known for her works like 'Players' and 'The Sleepover', and the screenplay will be written by Ben Agron and Brandon Feldman, according to a report by reported by Variety, the plot of 'Marriage Material' follows the founder of a dating app, whose deadbeat husband's alimony payments are bleeding her dry, so she must use it to find him a new wife before her company goes public. BuzzFeed Studios' president, Richard Alan Reid, told Variety,' 'Marriage Material' is a fresh, fiercely funny romantic comedy with an undeniable heart.' He added, 'Emma and Matt are a comedy duo that audiences worldwide will enjoy. We're delighted to be partnered with Capstone Studios, and believe that with its bold humour, irresistible charm, and modern twist on love, 'Marriage Material' is poised to become a global crowd-pleaser."The 34-year-old actor was last seen in the 2024 comedy film 'Space Cadet' and is best known for her performances in 'American Horror Story' and 'We're the Millers'.Matt Rife, who will be opposite Roberts, is currently on his biggest comedy tour to-date with his 'Matt Rife: Stay Golden' Watch
