My Beautiful Launderette- an intricate, passionate, funny and thought-provoking play at the Queen’s Theatre.

Deeply set against each other, tender messages of love and hope emerge when unlikely characters find the courage to pool their resources, work together, and build relationships against the tide of all that dominates, divides and oppresses – book tickets to My Beautiful Laundrette now-this is a fantastic 4 **** performance.

Today, our theatre reviewer Ruth Kettle-Frisby shares her review for My Beautiful Launderette at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch.

This is a very special stage production of My Beautiful Laundrette, not least because it features Gordan Warnecke – the original actor who played our young protagonist, Omar, in the 1985 Film – as Omar’s physically ailing, but relentlessly wise Papa.

Opportunities for irony are used to great effect in the construction of the set: from the seedy mountain range of Portaloo-like old washing machines; to the cheekily-named‘Powders’ neon-lit to a dramatically 80’s chiaroscuro effect. The audience is treated to powerful blasts of Pet Shop Boys synth-pop, which punctuates the grimy darkness, resonatingwith the intensity on stage at thought-provoking scene transitions in this fearless play.

My Beautiful Laundrette upends White, straight, rags-to-riches/coming-of-age tropes and splinters them into insightful shards of cutting social commentary about social tensions at intersections of race, religion, class, gender and sexuality.

Papa’s advise is distorted into contradiction by the racism that permeated 1980s Britain, confusing the young and ambitious Omar into the hands of his power-hungry uncle Nasser (Kammy Darweish), and his corrupt cousin Salim (HareetDeol): if the maxim ‘education is power’ is quashed by racists who fear intelligence, a job offer – however humble(!) – feels more enticing to Omar than overthinking his way into inertia.

The danger of the organised racist agenda is portrayed convincingly by Paddy Daly – with his beautifully gravelly diction – as Genghis and his sidekick, Moose (played by brilliant shape-shifter, Emma Brown) for whom far right White supremacist ideology has radicalised to such an extent that it is elevated to the status of an all-consuming spirituality.  Hareet Deol brilliantly and single-handedly represents the violent push-back against this at street level as Salim. A tremendous performance from Sharan Phull as rebellious Tania: her free spirit raging against layers of misogynistic shackles as she grapples and relents with Emma Brown, this time as Rachel.

So, while the extraordinary chemistry between Johhny (Sam Mitchell) and Omar (Lucca Chadwick-Patel) carries the main narrative, supporting characters do a wonderful job of regularly shifting undulating dynamics; the main love story ebbing and flowing in response. 

You can take multiple things from this intricate, passionate, funny and thought-provoking play; most strikingly of all, for me, was the space the production held that allowed the audience to pan out from appearances of social division, revealing the bigger picture that unites all characters in shared poverty. 

Deeply set against each other, tender messages of love and hope emerge when unlikely characters find the courage to pool their resources, work together, and build relationships against the tide of all that dominates, divides and oppresses – book tickets to My Beautiful Laundrette if you can, before it moves up north!

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