Frankie Goes To Bollywood Brings Glitz, Glamour And Pure Spectacle To Hornchurch.

By Ruth Kettle-Frisby – Guest Writer and Community Activist

Ruth is passionate about fostering positive change within the local community and regularly contributes insights and stories to The Havering Daily.

Frankie Goes to Bollywood – showing until Saturday at Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch – offers a fresh and insightful take on a familiar rags to riches tale, but it is first and foremost a veritable visual banquet. Powerful hidden truths simmer beneath its sumptuous surface, rippling with saris billowing in the breeze and expertly vibrant choreography. 

The show-stopping onstage chemistry between Sarah Pearson and Katie Stasiand – who play the unapologetically feisty Frankie and Goldy respectively – is where the magic happens: the sisterhood of brown sugar; not only sweet and unrefined, but extraordinarily talented. 

A healthy dose of down to earth West Yorkshire wit, charm and candour cuts through the drama like silk, as working class women yearn to escape personal and economic hardship… but at what cost?

Growing up in a pressurised British environment, their senses of self are hampered by the inherent loneliness that comes of having to navigate being othered while masking complex identities in the name of cultural assimilation, destined to be “too Brown to be British” in England, and “too British to be Brown” in Mumbai. 

This is a story of substance over – yet utterly immersed in – (really rather spectacular!) style; of love, truth, courage and solidarity triumphing over the parasitic, nihilistic film industry that robs young hopefuls like Frankie of their spirit and dignity. 

This production effectively portrays how the human fear of loneliness and obscurity heightens the very real and ever-looming vulnerability to exploitation and obsolescence, especially for women in the industry. 

Frankie and Goldy dare to challenge double standards in the entertainment industry that uphold men of all ages and appearances to the detriment of women who are not only held to unsustainable, sexualised standards of beauty, but are also – in the bigger picture of gender inequality – disproportionately vulnerable to domestic abuse.

All but one of the male characters caught up in the Bollywood machine are exposed as being deeply insecure; while their female counterparts have to be resilient merely to survive.

Meaty concerns such as empire and inequality are brushed upon with comically light touches, delivered sardonically with the driest of wits: “we kept the language, and they kept…everything else!”, while maintaining an overarching hopeful tone that is steeped in positivity and heart. 

Frankie’s self-proclaimed warrior heritage gathers momentum as a motif throughout. She arguably discovers its origin and realisation to be embedded more in female solidarity than in her Indian roots, as the women in the story resolve to rewrite the rules and redefine female identity.

Full credit to the entire cast, including the wildly entertaining ensemble, the oozingly fabulous Luke Suri as Shona who will have you in stitches, and Kate Stasi for her powerfully emotive vocal performance. 

Book your tickets now to catch Frankie Goes to Bollywood at Queen’s Theatre before it moves on:

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