Pierre de Marivaux’s 1730 play The Game of Love and Chance is a comedy of mistaken identity, class and the foolish places love can take us. This update, written by Nigel Planer, does not lack in ambition. Marivaux’s patriarch becomes the widow Kamala-Ji, while a valet and a maid become a hapless Uber driver and an Indian cousin with a love of cheap fashion.
The central love story remains. A young woman (Rani) is to meet her betrothed (Raj), and disguises herself to observe him unsuspectingly. Of course, Raj has the same idea, and the two both find themselves falling in love with someone they believe is below their station.
However, swapping 18th-century French nobility for modern-day British Asians in the suburbs is no easy feat, and it shows. While the script is fast-paced and the Bollywood in-jokes are witty, the two central characters come across as unconvincing in their love and charmless in their behaviour. For a farce, there are also few laugh-out loud moments.
Jatinder Verma’s direction brings life to a small space, while Goldy Notay’s Kamala-Ji glides around the stage like the fun, scheming, drunken auntie she is supposed to be. Kiren Jogi’s comic timing is particularly impressive as Sita, Rani’s oft-mocked cousin with a love for Bollywood songs and cheap, tight clothes. Jogi brings genuine warmth to a character who would be easy to mock.
While the Bollywood scenes are a fun break from the action, the closing song and dance number feels overlong, and the payoff – a last-minute change into 18th-century dress – isn’t particularly satisfying. In classic farce tradition, everything works out in the end, but it’s a shame that the same cannot be said for the production.
- At Tara theatre, London, until 24 March. Box office: 020-8333 4457. Then touring until 5 May.
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