By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO—Family and ethnically themed comedies are not new to most audiences. (There’s always Neil Simon) What might be new, however, is that Indian ethnicity isn’t your usual fare of what’s seen on local stages these days unless you see Rafta, Rafta”, Ayub Kahn-Din’s Oliver Award winning comedy now playing at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park. Another reason for it not being readily available is it’s set in the working-class English town of Bolton whose claim to fame is a heavily populated Indian immigrant population, so far away from the shores of good old U.S.A.
Rafta, Rafta, I’m told, translates ‘slowly, slowly’ or all in good time. “All in Good Time” is the name of the 1963 Bill Naughton play from which it was adapted. So “what’s it about,” you ask?
The short answer is Rafta, Rafta is a contemporary comedy about the cultural differences between old and new customs and traditions. For example, young Indian couples are expected to consummate their marriage on their wedding night in the home of the groom’s parents. (Old custom). Young couples usually consummate their marriages, if they haven’t already been living together, at a hotel or resort far far away from the eager ears of family members, especially if they share a common wall. (New custom or East meets West.)
In Ayub Kahn-Din’s comedy, which got rave reviews in Great Britain as well as in New York, (go know!) the young couple in question Atul Dutt (Rachid Sabitri) and Vina Patel (Mahira Kakkar) who are newly married arrive at the paternal in laws home to meet and greet the family (both sides are there), check out the wedding booty, have a traditional meal, and then under the watchful eyes of all concerned, head upstairs to Atul’s bedroom to satisfy the age old Indian custom.
Needless to say, things go from bad to worse between all parties and that’s including the newly married couple who fumble and bumble on their wedding night (and after), both sets of parents whose expectations are as different as are their family values and other family members who really don’t make one bit of difference in the scheme of things in this not-so-funny family drama. That’s the long answer. And it’s the long answer that gets dragged out, played out and worked out over a two-plus hour evening. Yup. Slowly, slowly!
The production starts out with a fun filled Bollywood looking wedding celebration with the entire wedding party dressed to the nines (Christal Weatherly) in traditional outfits walking and dancing (Mark Danisovszky supervised the music and Reetu Patel the dance) down the theatre isle on to the festive looking backdrop on the main stage (Alexander Dodge) giving the impression of being one big happy wedding party.
That lasts until they all make it over to EEshwar (Kamal Marayati) and Lopa (Geeta Citygirl Chopra) Dutt’s working class home (Alexander Dodge) where breakfast foods await and the traditional kicking over of a small container of sugar is complete before the young couple can enter the home.
It’s clear to see that Vina’s family, Mom Lata (Gita Reddy is always uptight and in character) and Dad Laxman Patel (Nasser Faris is perfect as the attentive and caring dad) come from a much more sophisticated and upscale background and kinda look down on the Dutt’s.
Both families have their issues with their respective mates as well as with their respective off spring. It seems that Vina is Daddy’s little girl and Atul is Daddy’s big disappointment. That becomes a running theme throughout as Vina’s mom vies to become an important confidant of her daughter’s and Atul’s mother continually defends her son against her husbands putdowns.
Director Jonathan Silverstein, “a nice Jewish boy from Rhode Island” (I can relate) claims to see similarities in most ethnic idiosyncrasies especially the insider vs. the outsider in dealing with every day situations i.e., following family traditions as opposed to living the more ‘modern lifestyle’. It’s a difficult case to prove given the story line in which he has to work.
This is sit-com 101 and it’s just not fun. Most of the throw away lines are typical like “eat, there are starving children in India”. Wrong! It might have made a difference if the characters were more interesting and we could care about them. Unfortunately neither Atul nor Vina seemed to have much energy around their unconsummated marriage and their separation was no big surprise. And the big secret secretly told to Vina’s mom, …well, forget about keeping that one under wraps.
Things deteriorate until in Act II we finally get some more insight into the minds of the parents and can actually understand a little more of their struggles, their hardships and the love they have for their children. This indeed is universal. Sometimes though it’s not always funny. That said, the most engaging and yes, funny and insightful repartee comes between Lopa Dutt and her husband Eeshwar. They are, of the three couples, the most believable and vibrant. Geeta Citygirl Chopra and Kamal Marayati (who just came into the role days before the show opened) are terrific together.
Other minor characters include co-workers and friends; Atul’s brother Jai (Ariya Ghahramani) Jivaj Bhatt (Amir Darvish) and Molly Bhatt (Caralyn Kozlowski) and Etash Tailor (Shalin Agarwal) who are more window dressing than anything else. Atul runs a movie projector and they all share a love of the cinema. Javaj is Atul’s boss. They have a slight altercation, nothing serious, no cuts or bruises. Other than that revelation, there is nothing else to say about them except why are they there?
The Bollywood style ending bookends with the opening number but now instead of the solemn ritual of the marriage ceremony, we have a relaxed and smiling young couple fully engaged in having fun with their friends and family and ready to get on with their lives. Would that the entire show had that much bounce.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through April 24th
Organization: The Old Globe
Phone: 619-234-5623
Production Type: Comedy
Where: 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park
Ticket Prices: $29.00-$67.00
Web: theoldglobe.org
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com