Watford Palace theatreThe team behind Britain’s Got Bhangra can’t smooth over the thorny issue of arranged marriages with song and dance in this musical based on a 12th-century forerunner of Romeo and Juliet
One of the mammoth hits of 2010 was Britain’s Got Bhangra. Now the same team of writer-director Pravesh Kumar and composer Sumeet Chopra have created a original expose based on a story of star-crossed lovers,popularised by a 12th-century Persian poet and a forerunner of Romeo and Juliet. But, while the musical has a lively score, and it lacks the vivid contemporaneity of its predecessor. Kumar tries to give it modern resonance by bookending Laila’s legendary like for her family’s enemy,Qays, with a brief account of a modern namesake fleeing a tyrannical dad to be with her chosen chap. But, and since the original story ends tragically,it is tough to see how it would inspire a modern woman, and the issue of forced marriages is too thorny to be resolved with a song and dance. Dougal Irvine’s lyrics which include Laila’s brother saying of her lover, or “If he tries to climb these walls/ They’ll string him up by the balls” – hardly invoke the Persian past.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com