My Beautiful Laundrette: Review

In 1985 My Beautiful Laundrette was an undeniably bold and non-conformist film. It starred a young Daniel Day-Lewis and won screenwriter Hanif Kureishi an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.

Almost 40 years-on Kureishi has returned to his romantic comedy-drama and adapted it for the stage with powerful effect, keeping true to the original story and setting, following two lovers in their attempts to navigate an interracial, gay relationship in 80’s Britain during the Thatcher government.

The play premiered at Leicester Curve in 2019 and this revival, which comes to The Lowry this week, sees several of the original 8-strong cast reprise their roles including Kammy Darweish as Omar’s enterprising Thatcherite uncle Nasser, Paddy Daly as right-wing thug Genghis and Hareet Deol as Salim, Nasser’s right-hand man. Fans of Steven Frear’s film will also recognise the original Omar, Gordon Warnecke, in the role of Omar’s wise but world-weary Papa.

Here centre stage are Sam Mitchell as Johnny, a white working-class young man caught up in the wrong crowd, and Lucca Chadwick-Patel as his school friend Omar, a young Pakistani Briton. The play takes its name from the run-down laundrette that innocent Omar is instructed by his family to take on, which subsequently leads him to reunite with his old flame.

Despite the business been given to Omar to ‘transform’, everybody is under the impression that the laundrette is a dead-end project. Omar and Johnny reconnect on a romantic level while working on it together, and soon the business is unrecognisable. Both characters come from challenging yet contrary backgrounds, with Johnny being urged by his far-right nationalist friends to turn against Omar’s Pakistani family.

Tackling some heavy topics, this play manages to find the perfect balance between harsh reality and witty humour. With some playful innuendos and teasing between characters, it offers a form of comic relief for the crowd, which went down very well with Tuesday’s audience.

Johnny’s dark past is delved into by love interest Omar, causing some turbulence along the way. Both characters are lacking a sense of belonging in their opposing social groups and cultures, meaning that their relationship is forced to stay secret.

The whole cast offer a compelling narrative that has the entire audience hooked. Kammy Darweish gives a stand-out performance as Omar’s brutal business-focused uncle, Nassar, encapsulating the proud and egocentric character with vigour.

Nassar’s daughter, Tania (Sharan Phull), offers a breath of fresh air, straying from her family’s traditional values and taking on an accepting and feminist point of view. The character shows a deep admiration for gay icon Freddie Mercury who shattered stereotypes at this time. Nassar is keen for his daughter to marry Omar, yet Tania is keen to escape from her father’s clutches. Sharan Phull does a great job highlighting Tania’s undeniable confidence and charisma whilst still showing her vulnerability at times.

The play concludes with many questions left unanswered and issues ongoing, which leaves the audience wanting more. It is safe to say that the ending is not the one many would have wanted due to its lack of clarity. However, it can be argued that ending the play in this manner is actually the most appropriate way to do so, seeing as the issues that the characters faced, are still ongoing today and unfortunately, cannot be easily eradicated.

This play is incredibly thought provoking and really shows how ahead-of-its-time this story was when first written. While there is no doubt many of these societal problems still exist, seeing some of the discriminative norms in the 80s shows how far UK attitudes have come, which offers an element of hope.

My Beautiful Laundrette is at The Lowry, Salford from 19 – 23 March 2023.