“Marriage Material” at Lyric Hammersmith
Neil Dowden in the West End
30 May 2025
Sathnam Sanghera’s 2016 debut novel Marriage Material has been adapted for the stage by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti in a co-production by Lyric Hammersmith and Birmingham Rep, where it is transferring at the end of June. The story is inspired by Arnold Bennett’s 1908 novel The Old Wives’ Tale, about a family running a draper’s shop in the Potteries in the Victorian/Edwardian eras. Sanghera transposed this scenario to a corner shop in Wolverhampton owned by a British-Indian Sikh family (though retaining the English name “Baines”) from the 1960s to the 2010s. Bhatti has further updated the time to the present day, as well as changing parts of the plot. Directed by Iqbal Khan, it’s an entertaining comedy-drama about cultural identity that touches on some serious issues without going very deep.
Kiran Landa and Anoushka Deshmukh.
Photo credit: Helen Murray.
The play focuses on two sisters who are close but with different temperaments who follow contrasting paths. The elder, Kamaljit, wants a conventional Punjabi Sikh woman’s lifestyle of marriage and children, whereas the academically bright Surinder has ambitions for a professional career. Their mother Mrs Bains runs the shop after her husband becomes ill but his death spurs her to plan arranged marriages for the two girls: she reluctantly agrees that Kamaljit can marry the shy, tender-hearted shop assistant Tanvir in a love match, but Surinder – forced to give up studying her “A” levels – runs away with a gora (white man), Jim, a chocolate salesman who dreams of becoming a romantic poet.
Years later, Kamaljit’s son Arjan, a graphic designer in London, returns to Wolverhampton after his father dies to help her run the shop, putting in doubt his forthcoming wedding to English girl Claire. But when he finds out that his aunt Surinder is not dead as he was told, he tries to find her and heal the family rift.
The story follows three generations of a South Asian immigrant family amidst changing social conditions in postcolonial, multicultural Britain. Inevitably, racism rears its ugly head, though this is usually treated fairly lightly: rival shopkeeper “Uncle” Dhanda takes part in the historical campaign for the right of Sikh bus drivers to wear turbans in Wolverhampton but does not wear traditional dress himself, while Surinder’s well-meaning teacher says “Vikings were immigrants too”. Enoch Powell is referenced – as well as giving the 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech warning against Commonwealth immigration he was Conservative MP for Wolverhampton until 1974 – yet, strangely perhaps, the play does not extend to mentioning Rishi Sunak becoming prime minister.
Avita Jay and Jaz Singh Deol.
Photo credit: Helen Murray.
The drama is more concerned with family tensions, inter-generational clashes, and the position of women in a patriarchal community. As well as the pull of differing provincial and metropolitan lifestyles, the essential question is raised about how to integrate into Western society while preserving traditional cultural values. But the play is as much sitcom as saga. There are many funny moments, including a joke about British people eating Indian food reminiscent of the “going for an English” sketch in Goodness Gracious Me. And the show is ultimately soft-centred, with a touching reconciliation scene.
Whereas the events of the novel are seen through the eyes of Arjan (who may be a self-portrait by Sanghera, a journalist who wrote the memoir The Boy with the Topknot about growing up in a Sikh family in Wolverhampton), Bhatti’s play foregrounds the female characters. This broadly warm, humorous depiction of Sikh family life could not be further from the tone of her play Behzti (Dishonour), which notoriously had to be cancelled after a few performances at the Birmingham Rep in 2004 due to protests by Sikhs angered by its depiction of murder and rape in a gurdwara.
The production by Khan (who premiered Ayub Khan Din’s East Is East at Birmingham Rep in 2009, then revived it there in 2021 before it moved to the National Theatre) is accessible and engaging, with plenty of movement and music. Both the set and costume designs by Good Teeth are terrific, with the red-brick exterior of the building opening out to reveal the inside of the shop with mobile shelves bearing foodstuffs and household goods, while the mainly Seventies-style clothing and Sikh dress root the play in a particular period and place.
The multi-roling cast do well, though portraying different ages is sometimes problematic. Anoushka Deshmukh gives a sympathetic performance as the free-spirited Surinder, and Kiran Landa’s more complaisant Kamaljit later comes to resemble her long-suffering mother. Avita Jay is the strong-willed Mrs Bains having to deal with so much responsibility, while Jaz Singh Deol doubles well as the fading patriarch Mr Bains and the uncertain, conflicted Arjan. Omar Malik contrasts the roles of likeably bumbling Tanvir and assertive wheeler-dealer Ranjit, son of Irfan Shamji’s amusingly bombastic Dhanda. Celeste Dodwell plays the patiently understanding Claire, and Tommy Belshaw is the big-talking Jim who fails to find the streets paved with gold in London.
