Sock 'em With Honey - A review

reviewed by Ajay Pamneja

This new offering from Kali Theatre is written by Bapsi Sidhwa in Kali's efforts to give prominence to female writers.

The play is melting pot of sad & sweet emotions, laughs and cries, religion and family traditions, young love and parental responsibilities, status and society.

I was lucky enough to see it at The Cockpit theatre in London on the Press Night in the company of Saeed Jaffrey (well known theatre and film actor), Jatinder Verma (Tara Arts), Bapsi sidhwa (the writer) and many other faces from the world of performing arts. 

The play is aimed to entertain as much as to educate. The premise of the play is a Zoroastrian family's efforts to persuade their daughter (living in the west) - by any means (including bribery to the partner) to end her relationship with a Jewish boy. The process involves the girl's parents in Pakistan who are a minority community there and feel to part of a dying race. The maternal grandmother, with her frequent 'passing out' at the slightest mental stress, is a strong influence on the family and resented by the daughter, the son-in-law and the grand daughter. She is the central force driving the family and trying to hold it to it's Zoroastrian values and not lose another girl to a non-Parsi (as Zoroastrians are known in India and Pakistan) family.

The mother (Zareen played by Kitu Gidwani) of the girl (Feroza played by Sumitra Bhagat) is sent to England where she is living with her boyfriend David (played by Gareth Jon-Clarke) and a lesbian friend Sheila (played by Phillippa Downes). All the ingredients to form what is the antithesis to the Parsi values. 'The mother should never find out that Sheila is a lesbian (is there a word for that in Parsi?) and that her and David have slept together' - are the strict instruction from Feroza to the flat mates while the mother is staying with them.

The period while Mother is staying with them is full of sad scenes while mother and daughter have their heart-to-heart, anger when the Mother tries to bribe David to leave her daughter, loyalty when David admits to the hurt he is causing his family by this relationship and his decision that he should leave, fun & laughter when Zareen displays her curvy legs showing through the hot-pants she has just purchased on her Selfridges shopping trip, friendship when Zareen, David and Sheila are discussing their day, disgust when Sheila's lesbianism is revealed, loneliness when husband and mother are pressurising Zareen to be tough on Feroza and she is unable to enact it oevr her motherly love for Feroza, helplessness and sadness when the mother accepts the fact that the daughter is not going to leave David, the moments when superstition takes over and defies any logic for people's actions, joy when the young lovers decide to stay togetehr and teh mother leaves for Pakistan.

The strength or frailty of our beliefs and relationships are tested when young love stands up against tradition and family values. The disapproval of parents is universal when they are fighting to keep the identity of their dying religions, whether it be Judaism, Zoroastrianism or any other.

The play has its highlights when Zareen shows off her hot-pants, the grand-mother (played by Norma Dixit) reveals a picture of the Queen Mother and Princess Diana (complete with a garland) next to her temple and when the father Cyrus (played by Rohit Gokani) has to spend time with his mother-in-law - some universal facts.

The play is enacted perfectly by all the cast and the script is definitely of a very high quality with all the right ingredients. The father has the smallest part and still comes across as the least convincing character. Sets were fine and lighting wonderfully managed.