'Rafta, Rafta...' at The National Theatre

Tonight was a joyous and uplifting experience being part of the audience for 'Rafta, Rafta...' at the National Theatre. Why can't all theatre be like this (yes, I'm refering to the run of 'nasty' plays I saw in the spring)? I'm so pleased to have seen this at last, my faith in theatre restored.

'Rafta, Rafta...' is based on 'All In Good Time' (as all the posters and programmes make clear) but is set in Bolton and the protagonists are an Indian extended family. This gives the set designers free reign to have a gloriously colourful house (that seemed very '70s to me) as the set, living room and kitchen downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs, just as in any Bolton terraced house. The eldest son has just got married and his wife is coming to live with him in his parents house, and that's where the problems start. The first act is the wedding evening and the second is six weeks later and the couple haven't consumated their marriage, the groom having problems knowing his parents are in the next bedroom. Will they? won't they? Hhhhmmmm....

I thought it was a very well written and wonderfully acted play. The writing was very clever, subtle and blatant by turns, exploring family and marital relationships in quite an insightful way with some occasionally poignant moments. I could certainly recognise myself every now and then in the son's relationship with his father. It touched on a range of 'hidden' family issues - has the marriage not been consumated because the son might be gay? does the bride's father have too close a relationship with his daughter? And overlaid on all this is the experience of immigrant parents leaving their homes for what they think will be a better life and the distance between them and their children. A thoughtful play with an understated sting in the tail.

The chief characters are the parents, the marvellous Meera Syal and Harish Patel. I've admired Meera as a writer, actress and comedian for many years but Harish Patel was an unknown quantity to me but he's a genuine Bollywood star and was excellent in this play. Between them they had the audience laughing and crying by turns, playing well off each other. Harish was the well-meaning father who just can't help himself saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, bumbling through life and the life and soul of the party - everyone likes him. Meera plays the classic mother, smoothing things out, occasionally with a very sharp tongue, protecting her family. I loved her accent, switching from flat Bolton vowels to rapid staccato Hindi-English in a very naturalistic way. I loved the applause at the end of the play which was heart-felt for all the players but exploded for Meera and Harish, and deservedly so.

I laughed, my eyes got moist a couple of times, it made me think, it made me feel warm. I *liked* this play and this performance. Go and see it - you'll regret it if you don't.