THEATRE REVIEW: Love 'n' Stuff - The Coliseum Theatre, Oldham.

Whilst I suspect many reviewers are writing something similar in their opening paragraphs, I feel it would be remiss of me not to mention how incredible it is to be back in the world of live theatre and particularly at some of our local venues like the Oldham Coliseum – where some brilliant productions have been curated over the last few years. The venue is, like many others, steeped in history and has been open for over 135 years. Welcome back to all of those historic venues and we all hope the last 18 months is not something that will be repeated.

The production on display this evening is “Love n Stuff” which is a two-hander created by playwright Tanika Gupta. The writing here feels very much like it was meant to showcase two very capable actors who are not only extremely versatile but also have a significant amount of on-stage chemistry and cohension.

Gupta takes two characters from her 2021 musical (Wah! Wah! Girls) and puts them into a beautifully constructed scenario about their marriage, their own identity as Indians living in the UK, and their wider family and neighbours. The two characters are long-time-married couple Mansoor (Maanuv Thiara) and Bindi (Komal Amin) and the setting is Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport – the set is wonderfully constructed and very much in keeping with the airport itself and the style of signage. As a frequent visitor to the airport this attention to detail is not lost on me and makes me take notice even before the performance begins.

Muslim husband Mansoor and Hindu wife Bindi have been married for 35 years but all is not well in their marriage with Mansoor waiting at the airport to return to India having left a rather brief note for Bindi stating his reasons as “having had enough of this country” and being fed up with “this cold island” and longing for the sunshine and tropical climate of India. The flight is delayed which allows Bindi to confront Mansoor with some hilarious consequences underlining what is clearly a very serious situation.

There are a number of other characters in the play (obviously played by Thiara and Amin) including airport announcers for the constant delays, a loud and brash American woman arguing with her husband, a peanut seller, a drunk traveller who has already missed his flight, a posh dad, an hilarious perfume seller from Duty Free and Ruby the hippie, to name but a few. Thiara and Amin are so comfortable switching between characters on stage and they do this with flawless brilliance, not once is the audience confused about which character is speaking and the way they adopt such brilliant mannerisms for each character again shows off their considerable talent.

The review would not be complete without the special mention for two additional characters of Farooq (Amin) and Janice (Thiara) who are the couple’s lodgers and have been brought in to convince Mansoor to stay at home – both actors playing the opposite role you might expect. They almost steal the show with their hilarious lines and actions trying to formulate a plan to keep Mansoor in this country.  These would be absolute show stealers if it wasn’t for a neighbourhood teenager called Baggy (Amin) who speaks like a black Brit from South London and uses language that would only be meaningful to someone of that age – Mansoor’s constant confused expression just makes the scenes with Baggy even more hilarious.

Overall this is a superbly written 90 minute play with all of the satire of a modern multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-national extravaganza but is just plain enjoyable and funny. It pokes fun at the Indian culture and the British culture with the same vigour but does so without making this a focal point for the performance – however, the acting performances are the overriding memory of what “Love n Stuff” is all about and that’s what I take away from this production.

Reviewer - John Fish
on - 21.9.21