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Being gay and Asian in Britain, explored in a slight but honest one-man showSummary
Rating
Good
Do you know what a QPOC is? How’s your understanding of intersectionality? I first heard of the former in 2017: it’s a Queer Person of Colour, which is straightforward enough. I haven’t quite got my head around the latter, though. I vaguely know intersectionality is about how multiple incarnations of discrimination on different grounds – race, gender, sexuality etc – combine to create a unique experience of identity, but that’s about as clear as I can get it in my mind at the moment. So I was looking forward to A Splash of Milk, as its website blurb describes it as a show that “exposes the harsh realities of being a person of colour within the already marginalised queer community and the racism that lies within”.
Writer Sami Sumaria also plays 27-year-old protagonist Sunny. Sunny’s grandparents are an Indian/Pakistani and Muslim/Hindu contrast that might have been problematic, but his not-very-religious parents fell in love, and the different national/faith boundaries didn’t prevent the families from getting along. But issues around how white gay men treat him in contemporary Britain are causing Sunny distress to the extent that he’s “sworn off” them.
Well, he says he has, but the play finds Sunny living in his tissue-strewn childhood bedroom searching the inevitable apps for a hook-up that could lead to more. He’s a sucker for a dog lover, but also seems fixated on tall white guys.
While Sunny prepares for a date, we learn about some of his previous encounters and why they’ve left him feeling sour. There’s the guy who thought Sunny would enjoy binge-watching an old racist sitcom, and the one with a load of adorable puppies who turns out not to be such a catch after all. The othering and exoticising of people of colour is sketched out, and there’s an example of ‘Where are you really from?’ which almost exactly mirrors recent events at Buckingham Palace.
But while there’s plenty of potential in the thematic pot, it’s hard not to feel that these issues are being skimmed over rather than meaningfully grappled with, either in the moment or as Sunny recalls and relates them to us.
Similarly, Sunny coming out to his paternal grandparents is built up as a significant emotional hurdle, but after the tension of waiting for them to pick up the phone, Sunny deflates the moment by airily telling us that it went fine. Neither the other grandparents nor his parents’ reaction to the revelation of his sexuality warrant even that much attention. There’s an odd reluctance to dramatise, and one wonders what Sumaria is afraid of such that he leaves his character (who is surely based close to home) to shrug and skirt around these things rather than take the story’s bull by the horns and invite us to stare it down?
As a writer/performer, Sumaria’s work is not without charm or effectiveness in either discipline, but on opening night he seemed rather nervous, and parts of the script that were clearly intended to garner laughs ended up falling flat. Eccentric lighting cues with many brief blackouts that didn’t help shape the narrative were a further puzzle. There’s no director credited for the show, and I think it might be a good idea to involve one if A Splash of Milk is to progress. Overall it felt like a missed opportunity to shed light on some complicated and potentially compelling issues.
But the 45-minute piece doesn’t outstay its welcome, and when at the end Sunny retreats to his bed with a tissue for a comfort wank, his defiant “What?!” to we observers was both an astute question and also the highest the energy levels had risen to all night.
Written by: Sami Sumaria
Produced by: Humnah Abdullah
A Splash of Milk plays at The Hope Theatre until 10 December. Further information and bookings can be found here.
