Review: Rukhsati, Collective Theatre

It’s everyone’s worst nightmare to bump into an ex at a wedding, but what happens when that reunion happens in the toilets? Writer-director Saqib Deshmukh takes this hilariously awkward concept and builds Rukhsati around it, a play about former lovers, Tariq (Hassan Khan) and Nighat (Catherine Mobley), who find themselves thrown back together in the toilets above a wedding hall in Tooting. Set within the South Asian Muslim community, Rukhsati attempts to balance comedy, intimacy and cultural specificity. Whilst the premise is strong, the translation to stage falls slightly flat, gesturing to something powerful without quite reaching it.

“Last night a DJ saved your life”, shouts Rukhsati’s third character, the DJ, played by Andrea Somasunderam (who, according to Deshmukh, has never acted before) – a line that oddly feels apt where the play is concerned. One of Rukhsati’s most compelling elements is the storytelling through visual and musical design. Upon entering the theatre, we’re grounded in the play’s sense of place through the toilet centre stage and the ladies’ bathroom door behind it. Littered across the floor are newspaper clippings about “terrorist attacks”, starkly punctuated with faded flyers advertising raves and club nights for the wedding hall below, dated from the 1990s, when Tariq and Nighat were together. The contrast between celebration, fear, intimacy and alienation is striking, immediately setting the tone. The DJ booth, to the side of this, takes this one step further. Through her quirky commentary and playful mix of music, Somasunderam both lifts the energy of the production and draws us into the culturally specific, lived-in world of Tariq and Nighat.

Despite the strength suggested by its design, Rukhsati fails to sustain this same nuance in the writing and performance itself. Whilst the subject matter is important and timely – marriage, masculinity, feminism and the pressures faced by South Asian Muslim communities – the execution is often over-explanatory, blunt and lessened by the jarringly unnatural use of slang at the end of every other sentence. There’s little space for the lines to breathe, resulting in a pace that flattens moments of emotional weight. Coupled with the lack of romantic chemistry between the two leads, it feels difficult to fully invest in the relationship that Rukhsati orbits around.

Given the confined setting and pressure to join the party below, Rukhsati has the potential to demand a sense of intense claustrophobia. But instead of trapping the characters together, the tension is unfortunately diluted by the decision to have the characters frequently leave the stage. However, other moments of escape throughout the play do translate well when in the form of movement. The dance sequences, choreographed by Aisha Rana-Deshmukh, cut through the heaviness of the themes, offering moments of charm and lightness whilst holding the shared history of Tariq and Nighat in a way that feels unique and very human.

Rukhsati is a play that shows genuine promise with a clear sense of both personal and political intent. There’s an undeniable value in art that tackles complex conversations in the accessible, comedic manner that Rukhsati takes on, feeling inviting rather than alienating. With a rework that pulls back the dialogue and trusts the subject matter to speak for itself, Rukhsati could fully find its voice and harness the power that it holds at its core.

Written and directed by Saqib Deshmukh
Choreography by Aisha Rana-Deshmukh

Rukhsati plays at Collective Theatre until Sunday 25 January.