In 2004, a little-known playwright called Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti changed this country's theatrical landscape with Behzti (Dishonour), a play which featured a rape scene in a Sikh temple. Protesters rioted and the play was shut down. Briefly, the mob ruled. The threats from the Sikh author's own community were scary enough for Bhatti to have to go into hiding. This play is about that experience.
Bhatti has chosen an absurdist style with which to tell the story and relate the fear, self-loathing and identity crisis she suffered.
Her autobiographical heroine (Chetna Pandya) is writing a play which, after being consulted, members of the local Sikh community want changed. Her characters - from poncy middle-class theatre director to old-school bigoted cop (both played by John Hodgkinson) - begin to take on a life beyond the author's control, eventually turning on the woman who created them. Narrative is at the mercy of the writer until the writer becomes the victim of narrative.
Bhatti deploys just about every convention-busting trick in the absurdist's handbook. There are rewinds and fast-forwards and as the tormented author's written world becomes real, so her real world, and her sanity, recedes. More importantly, Bhatti manages to give credence to her opponent's grievances while challenging her supporters, and never forsaking the cause of freedom of expression.
She plays a Pirandelloesque game. And if her grasp of the form is more solid than masterly, the evening is skilfully staged by director Lisa Goldman. What could have been a dog's dinner turns out to be brave both politically and dramatically. And it makes sense - what better way to reflect the absurdity of a writer having to respond to those who deny her right to write, than with an absurdist play? (Tel: 020 7478 0100)