The precision and dynamism of Mukul Ahmed’s production of Londonee fully match the play itself. Cunningly plotted, so that one only gradually understands how the parts add up to the whole, it reaches an uplifting climax, in which the challenges its young characters face in weaving their identities from a number of conflicting strands are excitingly overcome. Anger, wit, poetry and music leap in Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s play between Bangladesh’s nationalist struggle, contemporary East End society, life and death, earth and heaven, and the actors leap too, with energy, grace and commitment. A play that helps the young to find maturity and the old to recover their youth. William Radice, translator of Bengali literature
