Writer: Vivek Nityananda
Director: Natasha Kathi-Chandra
There’s a hard-hitting message about assimilation in this new play charting the journey of an Indian immigrant seeking indefinite leave to remain in the UK. However, it takes a circuitous track, and en route there are some fairly commonplace ideas about British identity: queuing, of course, football, pub banter and even the phrase “tickety boo”. It’s only at the end of the 95 minutes that these aspects take on a more sinister edge.
Vivek Nityananda’s play begins in 2013 when Home Secretary Theresa May ordered vans, displaying hoardings encouraging immigrants to go home, to drive around the country. Nikhil fears a knock on the door, but he’s safe for now, working towards a cure for cancer at a British medical research centre. He’s happy in London, enjoying a life of gay bars and hook-ups.
Nikhil has no intention of going back home to India, especially after 11 December 2013, when the Indian Supreme Court upheld section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that forbids same-sex relations. But the fear of not being granted his leave to remain becomes so strong that he hallucinates the presence of May herself, who offers, with the means of a 10-step plan, to help his application.
As the future prime minister, Amy Allen is terrific, nailing completely May’s slightly croaky voice and robotic arms. She tells Nikhil that he is the ‘good’ kind of immigrant, especially if he follows her 10-step guide and immerses himself in British life. Taraash Mehrotra’s Nikhil becomes increasingly erratic as he doubles down on his efforts to be a ‘good’ immigrant, eternally grateful, eternally polite.
While Nikhil ascends the steps (quite literally in Erin Guan’s compact set), the moral compass of the play comes in the character of Jyoti (Tanya Katyal), Nikhil’s best friend and flatmate. As a student studying for her PhD in Law, Jyoti has a strong sense of justice and seems to be out protesting most weekends, always with a fistful of placards. She, too, is queer and starts to date British-Pakistani Noor (Nusrath Tapadar). They moan about May’s immigration policies and, in the funniest line in the play, suggest that a South Asian Home Secretary would surely be more welcoming to those wanting to come to Britain.
Of course, this is not the first story of a queer South Asian man ‘assimilating’ to British standards set down by a female politician. In Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Laundrette, Omar becomes the entrepreneurial businessman so espoused by Margaret Thatcher. In I Dream of Theresa May, and much to Jyoti’s disgust, Nikhil develops Little England attitudes, although, unlike Omar, Nikhil is offered no redemptive escape.
Despite Mehrotra’s hard work and energy, we learn little about Nikhil. He remains a shallow character, and the script doesn’t give him enough interiority. Still, Nityananda’s play is very timely, coming in the week that Labour announces its immigration policies. Is I Dream of Shabana Mahmood on its way?
Runs until 29 November 2025
