Alkaline: New play questions religious stereotypes

by LAUREN CODLING

A NEW play hoping to challenge perceptions about religious stereotypes premiered at a London theatre earlier this month.

Alkaline focuses on two friends, Sophie and Sarah, who attempt to reconnect at a dinner party. Sarah has recently converted to Islam and Sophie struggles to understand her friend’s decision.

Nitin Kundra, 38, plays Ali, who is Sarah’s fiancé and a practising Muslim. He told Eastern Eye that the play attempts to hold a mirror up to audiences and makes them question what they would do in a similar situation.

“What would you do if your best friend began wearing a hijab because they had found Islam? Is it something you would find strange or something you would embrace?” Kundra said. “That is what we are interested in and that is what drew me to the play in the first place.”

The actor believes the topic is relatively taboo and revealed that some in the audience gasped audibly at certain lines referring to Islam during the play.

Audiences may assume that Alkaline will address certain themes related to conversion, but Kundra says they will be surprised to discover that it does not follow a stereotypical narrative.

“People may think it is about radicalisation, but it isn’t,” he said. “My character Ali is having a beer, getting stuck in with friends, and Sophie is attempting to search for ugly things about him which fit her stereotypes, but it isn’t there.

“We wanted to hit a nerve.”

The play is a brand-new piece of writing, which is exciting for Kundra. He calls it a “privilege”, as it is the first time the story is ever going to seen and heard by audiences and cites it as one of his favourite jobs in his career so far.

Kundra was 17 when he first got involved in the entertainment industry, enrolling in a performing arts course.

“It wasn’t something I got into as a young child. It wasn’t about pushy parents or anything like that,” he said. “I got into it a lot later on.”

He has since had an extensive career, moving from his home town of Newcastle to London in 1999 to pursue his acting dream. Kundra has starred in a number of film and television shows, including a recurring role on comedy panel show Celebrity Juice, as well as a range of theatre productions.

Growing up in Newcastle, Kundra recalled living in a “very white area,” where his Indian background was never a problem.

“Obviously you got the odd idiot,” he said. “But I never thought about my colour. I was always a big part of everything. I played with all the white kids on my street, and it was never something I grew up having in the background massively.”

However, he believes times have changed, and suspects that growing up in a city like Newcastle now could be different compared to when he was young.

“It feels like we had all the beauty of 2012 in the Olympics and the whole country embraced the multi-culturalism of the UK. But now, things like

Brexit have allowed a certain vocalisation of things which probably were a bit more under the surface.”

With Alkaline, however, his hope is that viewers can start a dialogue about issues surrounding faith and diversity highlighted in the story.

“We don’t try and answer all the questions brought up in the play,” Kundra asserted.

“The writers wanted to put something in front of an audience and say, ‘here are our ideas, take from it what you will.’”

However, the star is keen to highlight that the play is not just about politics and religion.

Themes of friendship, relationships and love are central to Alkaline. The drama revolves around new people trying to impress new people and old friends attempting to reconnect, Kundra explained.

He is sure that people will be able to recognise some situations they witness on stage.

“It is about how people perceive people,” he said. “It’s a really thought-provoking piece of theatre.”

Alkaline is at Park Theatre, London until next Saturday (4)