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Pork pies meet pakoras in spicy retake of literary classic

  • Amanda Burden
  • Jun 27
  • 2 min read
Kiran Landa, Anoushka Deshmukh, Tommy Belshaw and Omar Malik. Photo by Helen Murray.
Kiran Landa, Anoushka Deshmukh, Tommy Belshaw and Omar Malik. Photo by Helen Murray.

Marriage Material by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti based on the novel by Sathnam Sanghera. At Birmingham Rep from 27 June to 5 July 2025.

Review by Amanda Burden.


The best plays and films often reimagine classic novels—think Clueless (Emma), Cruel Intentions (Dangerous Liaisons) or..err… A Muppet’s Christmas Carol. Hey - it’s a masterpiece, and I’ll fight anyone who says different.


Sathnam Sanghera’s Marriage Material follows in this time-honoured tradition, taking Arnold Bennett’s The Old Wives’ Tale and updating it for a modern audience with humour, emotion, and a healthy dollop of Midlands realism.


Set in Wolverhampton, Marriage Material tells the story of two sisters in a Punjabi family—one rooted in tradition and home, the other driven by wanderlust and ambition. Their paths, carved out by family expectation and their own desires, swing between duty and self-fulfilment. The family negotiates the clash of British and Punjabi culture, wrestling with the expectation of two cultures set against the backdrop of simmering hostility driven by racism and fear.


Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh. Photo by Helen Murray.
Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh. Photo by Helen Murray.

Young sister Surinder (Anoushkha Deshmukh) is tempestuous and fiery, seeking a future fuelled by education and adventure, while older sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is dutiful and conventional, dreaming of a wedding and family. The script is on point, liberally peppered with Punjabi expressions and Midlands colloquialisms which elicit sniggers of recognition from the audience. Meanwhile, the play’s characters are sharply drawn and as instantly recognisable as the phrases – everyone has met overbearing uncle Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), full of bluff and bluster, and drunken neighbour Tommy (Tommy Belshaw), who professes his love for the Bains family one minute but spits racist slurs the next.


The set shows an equal attention to detail, beginning with the closed frontage of the traditional corner shop swinging open like a storybook to offer a glimpse of the living room inside, where generations of the Bains family clash and connect. Later, after years have passed and the corner shop has evolved into a deli, the shop front becomes less of a closed fortress and more of a bustling community hub, open, warm and welcoming, signalling the unification and transformation of British cultures.

Anoushka Deshmukh, Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay. Photo by Helen Murray.
Anoushka Deshmukh, Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay. Photo by Helen Murray.

Writer Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti and director Iqbal Khan deftly weave biting comedy with the high emotion of loss, legacy, and cultural inheritance to produce a show both touching and savage by turn, reflecting experiences of diaspora communities everywhere.


Ultimately, Marriage Material proves the old proverb: you can choose your friends, but not your family. And no matter how far and fast you run, your heritage, like your history, will catch up with you. 


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