Behind the Beautiful Forevers review, Olivier

The first preview of Behind the Beautiful Forevers came with the warning that there had not been time for a dress rehearsal and the performance might have to be stopped for safety reasons. A week later it opened with the set in perfect working order, and with 40 minutes shaved off the running time. It's still three hours including the interval. Tonight was Press Night. One imagines the cast and the crew going home afterwards and collapsing with nervous exhaustion. The good news is that, taking all of this into consideration, Behind the Beautiful Forevers works really well. Whether or not you'll enjoy the play depends, however, on your stomach for a narrative that is like standing on a cliff looking down into the abyss.

David Hare's dramatisation is from Katherine Boo's highly acclaimed book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Bombay Undercity, based on interviews and research done while living for three years with the slum dwellers of Annawadi. The narrative has a touch of Slumdog Millionaire in the early minutes and Bombay Dream in the slum clearance plotline. Paul Arditti's sound design includes some fabulous Bollywood and bhangra riffs and Katrina Lindsay's deceptively simple set provides some iconic moments - particularly the landing plane which jettisons its rubbish over the slum.

Slum enchanted evening

Meera Syal is both tough and moving as Zehrunisa Husain, a hard-bitten businesswoman creating riches out of rubbish, whose family is thriving at the heart of a scavenger community. They're either in plastics (bottles and bags) or metal (from Taj Hotel cutlery to bits of roof, all stolen) and riven with petty jealousies that lead to despicable acts of wickedness against each other. When the one-legged woman next door sets herself alight and, with her dying breath, untruthfully blames Zehrunisa's family, we are on a knife edge. This is the point at which the audience at Behind the Beautiful Forevers falls into one of two camps. The series of narrative car crashes that follow may lead some to gnaw their own legs off to provide relief. Those that are left will either weep for an India riven with corruption and cruelty, or celebrate the indomitable human spirit and the ability of those on the bottom to create something out of nothing, showing not just an instinct for survival, but for success.

In conclusion: As the shorter version of Behind the Beautiful Forevers beds in, it will sparkle, though the subject matter is unremittingly grim. There are issues with accents - Brit Asian actors are no better than any other type of Brit at mimicking Bombay dialects - but Director Rufus Norris has found a lovely and lively cast with promising and pleasing new faces.

References
Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Tickets
Picture by, and copyright of, Richard Hubert Smith

Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1.  Run ends Monday 13 April