'Rafta, Rafta ...' by Ayub Khan-Din
4 March 2008I very much enjoyed the National Theatre production of 'Rafta, Rafta ...' by Ayub Khan-Din which we saw at Milton Keynes Theatre last Saturday. It was based on the 1953 play 'All in Good Time' by Bill Naughton (which was filmed as 'The Family Way' with Hywel Bennett and John Mills) but updated to focus on an Indian family in modern day Bolton. A young couple, unable to afford their own home, start their married life sharing the groom's parents' small terraced house. The original plot worked remarkably well in its new setting - some things don't change that much and have a kind of universality across cultures! Michael Coveney, writing in the programme, suggested that Naughton sits on a line of popular playwriting from the likes of Harold Brighouse to Alan Bennett and Alan Ayckbourn. There are clear echoes of 'Hobson's Choice' here and 'Rafta, Rafta ...' definitely has the look and feel of an Ayckbourn play - and is similarly extremely funny. Like Ayckbourn it is accessible and entertaining while gradually revealing its deeper, darker themes. There was a great central performance from Harish Patel as the comical patriarch, and a wonderful set showing a dolls-house cross-section of his two-up, two-down.
posted by Robin Simpson @ 11:02 am
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