The Beast's Pen

Photo: Helen Murray

Writer: Shaan Sahota

Director: Daniel Raggett

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shaan Sahota’s debut play, The Estate. a comedy, dips into dangerous waters as it centres around a Member of Parliament of Sikh heritage who is aspiring to climb to the top of the Westminster ladder. Added to politics, race, religion, gender inequality, cultural tradition and family loyalties are all thrown into the mix in a venture that, at first glance, looks foolhardy, But is it?

The play is marked by the freshness and fearlessness of a first time playwright. Sahota, a British Asian herself, has much to say about merging deeply contrasting cultures and she does so with great sensitivity and rich humour. The play begins as a political satire in the style of The Thick of It. It is one year before a General Election and the Leader of the Opposition has resigned. Angad Singh (Adeel Akhtar) sees himself as a contender for the vacancy, encouraged waveringly by his assistants, Petra (Helen Wilson) and Isaac (Fode Simbo), but discouraged by the pompous party whip, Ralph Hughes (Humphrey Ker).

The set, designed by Chloe Lanford, at first an austere Westminster office, opens out to begin a new story centring around Angad’s private life. He has a wife, Sangeeta (Dinita Gohil) and a baby daughter, but his father, who had arrived in Britain in the 1970s to work as a baggage handler, has just died. Angad’s older sisters. Malicka (Shelley Conn) and Gyan (Thusitha Jayasundera) arrive in town for the funeral and the reading of a will in which they find themselves cut out in favour of the only son, as would have been normal in the patriarchal society to which their father had belonged. The sisters are incensed and, unless Angad agrees to give them what they believe to be their fair shares, they threaten to sabotage his career with revelations of trivial misdeeds from the past.

There is enough material here to feed a meaty drama, so how does the play manage to fill the Dorfman Theatre with laughter throughout its 140-minute (including interval) running time? Aside from the writer’s wit, much credit goes to director Daniel Raggett’s beutifully balanced production and to Akhtar’s astonishing lead performance. His Angad is an underdog and a leader, surreal and human. Raggett gives free rein to Akhtar’s clowning and the introduction of physical comedy feels inspired, throwing a bright light on the lunacy of what is going on in Angel’s world.

The many serious themes are never totally overwhelmed by the production’s comic content and there is much to discuss afterwards. However, it is the lighter that will linger longest in the memory. The Estate is frantic and its focus sometimes gets fuzzy, but, when all its pieces fall into place, it is poignant and absolutely hilarious.

Performance date: 17 July 2025

Photo contributed

Writer: James Inverne

Director: Daniel Slater

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Peter Shaffer’sAmadeus set a high bar for plays about rival composers and writer James Inverne enters similar territory with That Bastard Puccini, a drama about the competition between Giacomo Puccini and Ruggero Leoncavallo to produce the most successful version of La bohème. One of them would bask in the warmth of public acclaim while the other would feel more frozen than heroine Mimi’s tiny hand.

In Milan, 1893, Leoncavallo is being labelled a one hit wonder, seemingly incapable of following up the enormous success of his opera Pagliacci. He mentions to his friend Puccini that his next project will be to adap works by French writer Henri Murger, to which Puccini replies “me too”. Leoncavallo bursts into barely controlled rage, accusing his friend of stealing his idea and various other acts of plagiarism, while Puccini remains placid, seemingly not concerned that there will be two operas, both entitled La bohème, being staged concurrently and, eventually, both will appear at different theatres on the same street in Venice on the same night.

Sebastien  Torkia’s arrogant, sneering Puccini certainly merits the unflattering description of him in the play’s title, contrasting sharply with the frenzied rage of Alasdair Bucham’s Leoncavallo. Lisa-Anne Wood intervenes in the dispute as Berthe, Leoncavallo’s supportive wife and she also contributes impressively singing short extracts from the operas. The enthusiasm of this trio of actors gives director Daniel Slater’s production all its energy.

Lacking the scale and ambition of Amadeus, Inverne’s play takes a long time to develop a sense of direction. Foreknowledge of the outcome of the composers’ battle robs the drama of its tension and gaps are filled with hit-or-miss comedy, often involving the actors taking on subsidiary roles such as that of Gustav Mahler. 

A pedestrian first act meanders aimlessly, frequently laden with stilted scene-setting dialogue, but there is a distinct improvement after the interval when the writer finally reveals the play’s purpose, which is to discuss the processes for creating great art.

Overall, That Bastard Puccini is lightweight and patchy, mildly entertaining even though slightly off key. However, Puccini’s version of La bohème was itself received poorly by Italian critics when it premiered in Turin; taking this as a precedent, Inverne’s play could yet have a bright future.

Performance date:15 July 2025