This is a steamy potboiler in which a loveless marriage is blown apart by a torrid affair. Scholars of French literature will recognise Deepak Verma's drama as a Punjabi adaptation of Emile Zola's novel Thérèse Raquin. And for anyone who thought Zola was just another over-paid Chelsea footballer, they will be struck by some classy finishing in the new production from the British-Asian theatre company Tamasha. Their show is a tragic melodrama with the guiltily furtive atmosphere of the 1946 film, The Postman Always Rings Twice.
The play, by the man who was Sanjay in EastEnders, deploys the naturalism of Ibsen and the psychological tension of Hitchcock, but doesn't do much to recreate its Punjabi setting. Written in plain English, there is little attempt to replicate an Indian dialect. The story focuses more on the interior lives of the characters than on life in modern, provincial Indian. Verma's pared-down dialogue is undeniably clean and crisp, while the taut structure of his play maintains plenty of psychological tension.
Emulating the simplicity of Verma's writing, Kristine Landon Smith's direction is coolly under-stated and takes a while to catch fire. Eventually, however, the glowing heat of her production does deliver a scalding climax. The play is attractively presented by Sue Mayes, recreating the drapery-shop location with simple tawny fabrics. Felix Cross's drum-and-string music adds oriental atmosphere and dramatic portent.
Shammi Aulakh, as the story's insipid, cuckolded husband, is well worthy of his wife's frosty contempt, and although Rehan Sheikh lacks the swashbuckling Bohemian charisma he is meant to exude, he delivers all the anguished introversion required in the second half. Simon Nagra and Sameena Zehra add further perspectives - he as a local doctor full of macabre gossip, she as the judgmental presence of a traditional, elderly matriarch. However, the strongest performance comes from Anjali Jay.
She starts out deceptively demure, before being driven into the purgatory of harrowing guilt and howling grief after a brief, seamy sojourn with Kama, the Hindu god of love.
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