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PATRICK MARMION reviews Marriage Material at the Lytic Theatre: Catherine Cookson meets The Kumars in a sweet Sikh sitcom
PATRICK MARMION: For sheer intensity of generational bonds, they are hard to beat - as we discover all over again in the new stage adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera's epic Marriage Material.
We start in a red-brick terrace among first-generation Sikh immigrants, Mr and Mrs Bains (Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay), running a corner shop and demanding that bus conductors be allowed to wear turbans. It's a formidably male-dominated culture and although their daughter Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh) is a plucky brainbox studying Thomas Hardy, her suspicious mother dismisses education as stopping people sleeping at night and making them 'force their toilet in the morning'. We should all know about the pioneering gospel singer and guitarist Rosetta Tharpe, recognised by the musical cognoscenti as 'the godmother of rock 'n roll', a source of (acknowledged) inspiration for artists ranging from Little Richard to Johnny Cash, Elvis to Aretha Franklin.
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