RETROGRADE, a play centred around Sidney Poitier, deals with themes of inequality and discrimination and will appeal to the younger generation in the UK, its Asian director has said.
Amit Sharma is the artistic director of the Kiln in north London, where Retrograde was first performed.
Poitier, perhaps best known for his roles in Porgy and Bess, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In The Heat of The Night and To Sir, With Love, was the first African American actor to win an Oscar for best actor for Lilies of the Field (1963).
Written by Ryan Calais Cameron, Retrograde tells a story about Poitier’s moral dilemma when signing a contract with a crucial caveat.
“Someone like Poitier, a man of integrity, was given this kind of dilemma, and (the play) reflects how we all are faced with dilemmas every day,” Sharma told Eastern Eye.
“We want the world and people to have equality when it comes to opportunity, but that’s simply not the case. There are people who give opportunities to others, and it’s whether the offer they give is sincere or has power over somebody else,” he added.
Sharma said, “I’m sure all of you have been in a position where someone has offered you an ultimatum or a dilemma, and you’ve either taken it or you haven’t. But in Sidney’s case, he was living in a world where the civil rights movement in America was ongoing and there was not equality for black people.
A poster of the play
“Now, that has changed in terms of law and legislation, but discrimination still remains. So this is a play that really reflects on how far we have come, but also how far we have to go.”
Retrograde transferred to the Apollo Theatre in the West End earlier this month and features Olivier and Tony nominated actor Colman Domingo as a producer.
Describing the impact of Poitier, the director said, “He was a truly remarkable man, not only because he was something of a pioneer in his work. Many of his films were about breaking through barriers in the representation of black people on screen. He was really trying to challenge racial injustices in film and television, where in the past, stereotypes and tropes of black people were commonplace.
“He wanted a much more positive and realistic representation of black people on screen.
“He was also an activist away from his professional work. So not only did he make an impact on screen, but he did important work in his personal life as well.”
When it was first staged in April 2023, Retrograde was well received by critics, with praise for both the writer and its lead actor, Ivanno Jeremiah.
Sharma said, “With this play, I’m a British Indian director. The writer is black British. The lead actor (Ivanno Jeremiah) is black British. That’s not to say it hasn’t happened in the past, but right now, we’re the only combination that is delivering a piece of work in the West End.”
He added, “So, of course, many strides have been made, but that example I’ve just given you highlights where we’ve got to go. Because when it comes to people who historically have not had those opportunities, there is a pressure – it’s a good pressure, but there’s a pressure for us to make a success of it, otherwise there’ll be no other opportunity, whereas our counterparts don’t have the same pressures in the same way.”
Born in Delhi, Sharma came to England when he was eight months old with his parents and elder brother. He grew up in Southall, west London.
Ryan Calais Cameron
“We’re Hindus, and my birth chart said my career would be a life in the arts, so my parents pushed me in that direction. I had the support of my family and the support of school.
“I wanted to be an actor and was one for quite a long time. I came across a company called Graeae Theatre Company which was a disabled-led theatre company that offered an opportunity to train with them as an actor, because many drama schools weren’t accessible to disabled people in terms of their training. I went to Graeae and trained with them, and then I started to work as an actor.”
Sharma’s experience included work with companies such as Tamasha and the Unicorn Theatre.
“From a very early age, being in a rehearsal room, I was always very interested in how a director worked. I tried to find opportunities to work as an assistant director, which I was given with companies like Immediate Theatre and Graeae.”
Sharma later joined the Royal Exchange in Manchester, describing it as an “eye-opening experience” that taught him how artistic directors operate within established venues.
He subsequently became deputy artistic director at Birmingham Rep and later accepted Indhu Rubasingham’s invitation to become an associate at the Kiln Theatre, where he has been for the past year.
He said there’s been massive movement in the right direction when it comes to representation in arts.
“Fundamentally, it comes to equality of opportunity, and historically, there have been people who have been excluded from having opportunities. That’s simply indisputable. There have been big strides made. I run the Kiln Theatre now, but 15- 20 years ago, having someone who is of colour or disabled or with any of those intersectionalities, just wasn’t on people’s agenda as much as it is now,” he said.
“It should be on the agenda because we’re all after fairness. If we have fair opportunity, then we are judged on our talent. We are judged on how well we can do something or not, and historically, we have not had that opportunity.
“I’m now very lucky that I’m standing on other people’s shoulders, and I’m being judged mostly on my talent. But still, there are things for us to break through and achieve.”
His advice to aspiring young artists is “never give up” as you are “always one opportunity away from breakthrough in your career”
“Every journey has its ups and downs. No journey is completely smooth or easy. You’ve got to have resilience. You need to find people who truly believe in your work and in you as a person. They will be the ones who lift you up, promote you and champion you,” he said.
Amit Sharma
“Don’t give up. It’s very easy to give up, but you’re always just one opportunity away from making that breakthrough. Keep the fight going, keep the fire burning. Theatre is a wonderful medium because it connects with what we are as humans – storytellers. Theatre has the ability to impact people and change lives. An audience member can watch a play and come out feeling completely changed. They can be moved to tears or laughter.”
He added, “Young people who are considering this path should remember that they have the ability to create something magical that will touch someone in ways they hadn’t experienced before seeing your work as an artist.”
On his plans as artistic director, Shar[1]ma said, “I also want to keep finding plays that have the ability to transfer into the West End and beyond, because the stories that we’re telling are really important.
“There are audiences hungry to hear those plays, those stories, those perspectives, those lives. So, the ambition here is to continue to link these very diverse stories and make as many people feel as welcome as possible to the Kiln, and also using the Kiln as a platform for us to tell our stories, not only in the West End but also internationally too.”
Retrograde is on at the Apollo Theatre till June 14
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Aamir Khan embracing vintage looks with classic charmgetty images
Bold and dramatic changes defining Aamir Khan’s careergetty images
From rugged to refined Aamir Khan’s versatile appearancesgetty images
Memorable film moments showcasing Aamir Khan’s unique stylegetty images
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A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5