ANY FIRST night is daunting for the company concerned, when a show leaves the comfort of the rehearsal room and is laid bare in front of an audience for the first time they are in a formidable place.
Double that, if as with Anita and Me it’s a world premiere – then they are treading in footsteps that no actor has gone before.
I bore that in mind when I watched Tanika Gupta’s adaptation of Meera Syral’s much-loved novel.
The cast abounded with energy from curtain up, in some cases too much so – in that dialogue was lost by lines being shouted rather than projected making the action difficult to follow in the opening scenes.
Meena (Mandeep Dhillon) around whose ‘rite of passage’ the story revolves however is not only audibly perfect, but delightfully endearing from the start and she never falters as we travel with her throughout the evening.
Bob Bailey has produced a huge set as befits designing for one of the biggest stages in Europe.
He has created an ‘industrial village’ in the black country which has old car seats and tyres as its village green.
The set has it’s own journey too with neat window boxes on the houses giving way to desolation as they are gradually boarded over as the village dies giving way to motorway progress.
Roxana Silbert’s production uses the space well – it is inventive and fast moving with plenty of interesting background stories going on at the same time as the main action, in this she achieves a balance which is all embracing and not in the least distracting. Where the story works is in showing the clash of cultures and that true friendship does not recognise barriers, where it fails is in the clumsy clichés of blame.
It is left to Grandma Nanima (YasminWilde) to summarise in a very moving monologue near the end that integration is a project for many generations.
Whilst it is not a musical, Anita and Me is a play with songs, which whilst none are showstoppers do add another dimension to the storytelling.
Overall this is a production of which the Birmingham Rep can be proud in premiering.
One which, as it says in the programme notes, follows in the their tradition of producing shows such as ‘Wallop Mrs Cox and ‘Ridin’ the Number 8’, that feature the diversity culture history heritage of our great region.
Catch it until October 24 after which it moves to Stratford East for a London run.
Euan Rose
