Tag Archives: Milli Bhatia

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“King Troll (the Fawn)” at the New Diorama Theatre

Sonali Bhattacharyya adds an ingenious element to her story about immigration. After sisters Nikita and Riya, in danger of deportation, visit an odd family friend, Riya gains the power to create a supernatural creature to help her. Director Milli Bhatia emphasises every spooky and funny moment of this original idea; the Hiran, translated as fawn in English, is the making of the play.

Zainab Hasan and Safiyya Ingar, who play the sisters, are superb at grounding the action, especially given more than a few jump scares. The siblings’ relationship is convincing at the start and both performers are strong comedians. That said, Ayesha Dharker gets even more laughs and has a great night playing two wonderful villains. First Dharker is the witchy Shashi and then a smart landlady who has put up the rent: the question arises as to who scares us more.

There’s fun with the spooky creature too, along with the pointed fact that he is white and serves as a “sponsor” for Riya’s immigration claim. She calls him Jonathan (which really tickled me) and says they need him to be “slick but bland”. But Jonathan is scary too; Dominic Holmes makes the part appropriately creepy, aided by verses spoken off stage. And Ingar makes sure we fear for her character – having a pet psychopath at your beck and call isn’t fun. 

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Diyar Bozkurt and Zainab Hasan

Bhattacharyya wants to make other important points. Nikita works with migrants and their trials – including interviews and working conditions – are articulated through the character of Tahir, given a heartfelt depiction by Diyar Bozkurt. If Tahir seems to belong to a different play, Bhatia makes a virtue of that by emphasising the contrasting scenes. Maybe, with so much going on, adding romance for both sisters might not be needed.

There’s some clunky dialogue (that the location of the play isn’t specified doesn’t help) as well as moralising moments. And too many puzzling questions. It isn’t clear why Jonathan turns out to be right wing (surely his papers aren’t in order either?). Or why Riya becomes so vindictive: if power has corrupted her, that needs prepping. The play starts to buckle under its own ambition with an unnecessary twist set in the future. But King Troll (The Fawn) is entertaining, memorable, and easy to rate as a four-star show.

Until 2 November 2024

www.newdiorama.com

Photos by Helen Murray

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“Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner” at the Royal Court

The murderous intentions within Jasmine Lee-Jones’ play – back after a sell-out run in 2019 – aren’t really aimed at a particular person. While an heiress invokes the online ire of the character Cleo, the play tackles the subject of racism. Like her creation, it is the playwright’s engagement with social media that makes this award-winning debut original and exciting.

Cleo is joined by her old friend Kara shortly after she sends a first tweet threatening Kylie. They argue, as Cleo descends into a social media storm. Tackling cultural appropriation, capitalism, and queerness – each in relation to race – makes the show an intense 90 minutes. If the women’s relationship feels by turns lost and less interesting than the issues raised, the action is firmly controlled by director Milli Bhatia.

Lee-Jones puts flesh on the bones of Cleo’s academic theories poignantly, and has a go at presenting more than one side of the argument with interjections from Kara. Through strong performances by Tia Bannon and Leanne Henlon, the debates seldom feel forced, indeed they are a great deal of fun. But it is with her language that Lee-Jones thrills: plenty of plays have tried to tackle Twitter, but this script gives the medium a run for its money.

The rhythm in Lee-Jones’ dialogue is impressive enough. And effective: talking of Jenner’s “images of herself and wealth” serves the play’s theme, but it is the neologisms and acronyms that are dazzling – if difficult – making up much of the friends’ conversation and the tweets from others that we hear as well. It can’t just be my own age that makes this tricky to follow. And do the acronyms rise in number as the play goes on? Or at moments of stress? This is a text to be studied, with every word and shorthand phrase demanding attention.

Such innovation ensures incredible respect for Bannon and Henlon’s delivery of lines learned. And personas adopted: both show online reactions with repeated phrases, exaggerated accents and otherworldly movement. The idea of Twitter as an echo chamber comes to life on stage with Rajha Shakiry’s arboreal-inspired design and brilliant work with sound from Elena Peña.

I won’t pretend to have understood every word of Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner. But the combination of articulacy and (sometimes literally) nonsense, of the cerebral and the base – an effective summation of online content – is a brilliantly accomplished achievement.

Until 27 July 2021

www.royalcourttheatre.com

Photo by Myah Jeffers