Meera Syal’s much-loved novel bursts on to the stage for the very first time. Read more …
This poignant coming-of-age tale follows Meena, a young girl growing up in the only Punjabi family in a 1970s Black Country mining village. Meena spends her days happily getting into scrapes with the other local children until one day the impossibly cool Anita enters her life. Suddenly Meena knows exactly who she wants to be but is Anita all that she seems? Soon Meena’s world is turned upside down as she is caught between two very different cultures.
Anita And Me paints a comic, poignant, compassionate and colourful portrait of village life in the era of flares, power cuts, glam rock, decimalisation and Ted Heath. It has been adapted for the stage by the multi-award-winning Tanika Gupta.
The posters sell Anita and Me as a big old comedy but it’s more than that. It’s funny, yes, but it’s also poignant and powerful. A crisper production and it might have been perfect.
It is the epitome of a coming-of-age tale with enough real life for the audience to find something of themselves on stage, and it will continue to appeal to audiences for years to come.
The play has a lot to fit in, and occasionally feels as if the number of storylines and characters gets in the way of letting the plot really develop, but it does capture all that was great about the book and brings the characters and community to life throughout.
Roxana Silbert's production is a bright and brash affair with considerable charm.
King's Theatre, Edinburgh from Tuesday March 28, 2017, until Saturday April 1, 2017. More info: http://www.edtheatres.com/kings