If you saw Stephen Frears movie My Beautiful Launderette, made way back in the mercifully distant days of Thatcherite Britain, or even if youre too young to remember it (like me), its worth catching up with this adaptation at Above The Stag.Johnny is a National Front skinhead who searches for his next fight like others look forward to their next meal. Omar is a well-brought-up Pakistani boy doing his best for his aged and incontinent father while trying desperately to please a crooked uncle who fixes him up in a loss-making launderette. On the surface, these two have nothing in common, but this is more than about skin. It happens they went to the same school together and grew up as friends. And yes, theyre gay.The play succeeds most when it is turning conventions on their head. Homosexuality was a big issue back in 1986 when Hanif Kureishis screenplay hit the screen. Less so now, but it is still refreshing to see a depiction of a gay relationship where friendship and business interests in plot terms come first and sexual orientation second. As it turns out, thuggish Johnny is a bit of a pussycat really: all of the violence is inflicted on him by Omars white-boy-hating cousin Salim. Omars uncle Nasser - a show-stealing and magical performance from Royce Ullah - is the real villain and the true racist, employing Johnny to unscrew a few of his sitting tenants and cruelly leading on his long-suffering lover Rachel. The scene where Omar, played with glorious wide-eyed innocence by Yanick Fernandes, tries to get to grips with a sponge, a car, and a bucket of water in the yard while Nasser and Rachel try to get to grips with each other on a desk in Nassers office is a treat.The adaptation from the screenplay doesnt explore the inner lives of the characters. One longs to see more of the conflict that must have been simmering beneath Omar and Johnnys different skins, how they reconcile their friendship with the fact that Johnny marches with his Fascist friends through Omars neighbourhood. While film uses a language of its own to express such things, theatre needs to use an altogether different one. Director Tim McArthur makes up for the shortcomings of the script valiantly, extracting superb performances from his talented cast, giving it a joyful Bollywood finale which more than makes up for the rather inconclusive ending.Fiona Russells set is a complex affair, cramming a realistic street scene, a bedroom, a sitting room and a launderette onto the same small stage. At times it seems too clever for its own good, for there were moments when I wasnt sure which locations the characters were supposed to be in. Simplicity in fringe theatres like this one should be paramount. Less is more.That said, this is at heart a fine family drama about race, sex, duty, commitment and love which tackles issues but never confronts them, and which understates rather than overstates the tensions that exist between communities. The world this play depicts has not gone away.
