Sweetmeats at The Bush Theatre Review
Written by Sarah for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Sweatmeats is a new play by Karim Kahn that tells the story of Hema and Liaquat, two South Asian elders who form a connection after meeting at a diabetes management course. Both widows with ailing health, they help each other navigate a new way of living. Comical, naturalistic, and with moments of heightened poetry evoked by food, it is a gentle and compassionate look at loneliness in later life and building bonds through grief.
The diabetes clinic where the pair meet is run by Mrs Radcliff, who we don’t actually see but is perfectly conjured by Hema’s outrage at the audacity of a woman who eats shortbread during the sessions on cutting carbs. Reminiscent of Little Britain's Majarie Dawes from Fat Fighters, this sets the tone for the rye humour that keeps the play buoyant.
Hema is committed to improving her health and determined not to have any sweets because she wants to “live as long as she can”. In contrast, Liaquat is gleeful in his rebellion and can not fathom why anyone would deny themselves one of life’s pleasures. His lack of concern for his health also speaks to his lack of self-care following the death of his wife. Sugar, it seems, is the only sweetness he has in his life now, as he returns home and relentlessly listens to recordings of her voice on his vintage cassette player.
Shobu Kapoor (EastEnders) as Hema, is acerbic, guarded and not quite comfortable in her own skin, or with her own feelings as they develop towards her classmate. Rehan Sheikh, as Liaquat, is a dishevelled, depressed, shuffling teddy bear. With irreverent, deadpan humour and a naturalistic style, he inhabits the role with ease and warmth.
In Sweetmeats, food is both a language and a metaphor: the desire, the denial and the forbidden, love and memory. There's a particularly enjoyable fracas about whether India or Pakistan has superior mangos. The play is about recovering from loss, being open to letting go and tentatively allowing someone in.
The set by Aldo Vázquez makes excellent use of the space, dividing it into 5 separate scenes on multiple levels, which host Hema and Liaquat’s homes, a diabetes clinic and a bus stop. It creates an overview of the characters' worlds with a sort of map effect, but with individual scenes rich in detail. The carpet in Liaquat's house, Hemam's son's photo in pride of place; the details tell you exactly the kind of people they are.
Writer Karim Kahn and The Bush have done an excellent job of making elders visible and putting them at the centre of a story. These characters are fully fleshed, 3-dimensional beings with pasts, fears and needs, not just a grandparent of decrepit burden in the corner. Sweetmeats is a welcome relief from coming-of-age, teen angst musicals and feels rooted and nuanced.
The overriding problem with the piece is that it is about an hour too long. Whilst writer Karim Khan does a good job of subtly developing the characters' relationship over time, the storytelling, both in its writing and direction, by Natasha Kathi-Chandra, could be a lot more efficient. Whilst the script offers opportunities for more dynamic changes of pace, the energy drags and sags so that Liaquat‘s overindulgent melancholia permeates through the whole play. Sweetmeats trudges along for 2 hours and 30 minutes, and whilst the original score by Amrit Kaur Lohia is beautiful and evocative, it is somewhat soporific.
Runs until 21st March in the Holloway theatre at The Bush.
Content warning: grief, ageing, isolation, diabetes and heart deaths. Self care guide available here.
️️️️️ ★★★
