Theatre review: An Adventure

It may only have a cast of six, rarely putting more than three of them on stage at the same time, but coming in at nearly three and a half hours and spanning three continents An Adventure fits the bill if Vinay Patel was aiming to create an epic. Inspired by his grandparents’ journey to the UK, it begins in India where Jyoti (played initially by Anjana Vasan, later by Nila Aalia,) has to pick between four suitors. She doesn’t particularly want to get married but her father wants her out of the house and the only choice she’s getting in the matter is whose arm she’ll be walking out on. Turning up in a borrowed suit and bumbling his way through his interview with her, Kenyan-born Rasik (Shubham Saraf, later Selva Rasalingam) seems an unlikely candidate, but the quick-witted Jyoti has a quip and an answer for everything, and Rasik’s willingness to try and keep up with her verbal sparring puts him at the top of the pile.

Opening in 1954, An Adventure feels the effects of the tail-end of Empire, and back in Nairobi there are gradations in racial inequality, so while black Kenyans aren’t allowed to own land, Asians are; returning there, Rasik uses this law to strike up a partnership with David (Martins Imhangbe,) buying a farm that used to belong to David’s family and getting him to manage it.

Against a backdrop of civil unrest, Rasik fails to appreciate he isn’t doing David as big a favour as he seems to think, while Jyoti is clued-up enough to realise their friend is more closely associated with the rebel Mau Mau group than he lets on. When the couple finally flee Kenya for England, some of David’s rebellious spirit goes with her, and in the second act – following them through the 1960s and ‘70s in London – Jyoti becomes a dedicated trade unionist, first protesting against unequal pay for women, later against unequal hours and pay for Asian workers. It becomes a defining part of her life, but causes friction with Rasik and, later, their daughter Sonal (Aysha Kala.)

The Bush’s outgoing Artistic Director Madani Younis directs a play ambitious in the scope of both its story and its tone. An Adventure tries to create a balanced picture of the central couple’s lives over the entire span of their relationship and is largely successful, especially in making us root for the characters. Vasan in particular is so fiery as the young Jyoti that within a few lines of her first appearance the woman in front of me turned to her neighbour and whispered “I love her!” – a sentiment clearly shared by much of the audience. Rasik is also likeable but a bit more of a dreamer who’s happy to overlook uncomfortable truths if it makes for an easier life. It means that in the final act, with Aalia and Rasalingam taking over the roles, it’s Jyoti who I felt was more hard-done by, both by the characters they meet who think they’ve not done enough, and by Patel’s insistence on injecting a sour note to the end of their story together.

This final act also sees the play get a bit indulgent as it tries to find the right way to wrap up its epic sweep, and ends up with a mild case of Multiple Ending Syndrome as a result. But for the most part Patel and Younis reward the investment of time they ask of the audience, and what’s interesting about the couple is the middle ground they occupy in terms of how they’re perceived and treated because of their race: They enjoy enough additional privilege in Kenya for David to resent them without them necessarily realising the gap between them, while in England Jyoti experiences racial abuse but is seen by her niece (Kala) back in India as the wealthy auntie bringing patronising gifts of second-hand clothes.

Rosanna Viza’s simple traverse set reflects the play’s structure – a shiny floor for the Indian rivers they court next to, covered in earth for the Kenyan farm then carpet for their suburban life; as the final act sees them retrace their life’s journey, all these elements get thrown together in confusion. An Adventure’s ambition is largely rewarded, and though there’s parts of it that are frustrating the overall impression is of a couple worth getting to know.

An Adventure by Vinay Patel is booking until the 20th of October at the Bush Theatre.

Running time: 3 hours 20 minutes including two intervals.

Photo credit: Helen Murray.