On the 17th October 2015 we went to watch the performance adaptation of Anita and me at the Birmingham REP by Meera Syal and adapted by Tanika Gupta. The performance starred Mandeep Dhillon as Meena and Jalleh Alizadeh as Anita. The play is a touching example of a beautiful coming of age story and follows the tale of a British-Punjabi girl growing up in the Black Country during the 1970s it explores Meena’s struggle to fit into local culture. She soon develop friendships with both Anita and Sam (played by Joseph Drake), however these friendships soon lead to a struggle between friendship and family.
A remarkable moment of the performance for myself was the scene in which Anita and Meena are in the family home, which was created by an intuitive, …show more content…
The gloomy chilling lighting within the scene was central to the idea of darkness, this again was the opposite of our first introduction to the character Sam where he is lit glowingly. The dynamic of the lighting and the music used aided to establish the eeriness capturing the attention of the audience. In addition the lack of sound created an almost ghostly effect around the theatre. Then again the absurd racism and dreadful story of abuse and terror throughout the play is at least scandalous. The continuing theme of racism and the terror that they face is something I feel that we can all learn from. The way in which the writer went about displaying such a controversial issue is commendable as she used the relationship between the characters of Sam and Meena to show a contrast between how he treats her and her family to his attack on a harmless Asian man. Also the use of lighting …show more content…
Meena’s somewhat crude use of song in front of her strict parents within the set of the families welcoming, traditional home made almost all of the audience wince, but made for a roar of laughter from the audience, the laughter continued to bellow as the exasperated reactions and facial expressions of her parents remind us of our own parents. Meena didn’t stop there though. She then begun to explain her love for her favourite singer and to say her parents were disappointed is an understatement, as you can expect this lead to theatre full of joyous laughter. The amusement that spread through the theatre due to their use of song was immensely heart-warming created a homely atmosphere that allowed us to connect with Meena as we our self at some point have probably also have done this in front of our parents at some points in our lives this contrasts to the earlier use of sound which distracted from the plot line of the play were a man who was the epitome of the fashion in the time period played a piano. Furthermore, an absolutely wonderful thing about the play was the use of 1970’s props to create culture that made the play a teenage world of Chopper bikes, Jackie magazine. Another actor that has an exceptional comic talent was Janice Connolly as Mrs Worrall her relentless use of comical one liners had
A remarkable moment of the performance for myself was the scene in which Anita and Meena are in the family home, which was created by an intuitive, …show more content…
The gloomy chilling lighting within the scene was central to the idea of darkness, this again was the opposite of our first introduction to the character Sam where he is lit glowingly. The dynamic of the lighting and the music used aided to establish the eeriness capturing the attention of the audience. In addition the lack of sound created an almost ghostly effect around the theatre. Then again the absurd racism and dreadful story of abuse and terror throughout the play is at least scandalous. The continuing theme of racism and the terror that they face is something I feel that we can all learn from. The way in which the writer went about displaying such a controversial issue is commendable as she used the relationship between the characters of Sam and Meena to show a contrast between how he treats her and her family to his attack on a harmless Asian man. Also the use of lighting …show more content…
Meena’s somewhat crude use of song in front of her strict parents within the set of the families welcoming, traditional home made almost all of the audience wince, but made for a roar of laughter from the audience, the laughter continued to bellow as the exasperated reactions and facial expressions of her parents remind us of our own parents. Meena didn’t stop there though. She then begun to explain her love for her favourite singer and to say her parents were disappointed is an understatement, as you can expect this lead to theatre full of joyous laughter. The amusement that spread through the theatre due to their use of song was immensely heart-warming created a homely atmosphere that allowed us to connect with Meena as we our self at some point have probably also have done this in front of our parents at some points in our lives this contrasts to the earlier use of sound which distracted from the plot line of the play were a man who was the epitome of the fashion in the time period played a piano. Furthermore, an absolutely wonderful thing about the play was the use of 1970’s props to create culture that made the play a teenage world of Chopper bikes, Jackie magazine. Another actor that has an exceptional comic talent was Janice Connolly as Mrs Worrall her relentless use of comical one liners had