Love a Good Play: Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Olivier Theatre, NT, November 15, 2014

The place is packed and this is only day 3 of the previews. The pull of David Hare? The pull of Nick Hytners last season? The pull of Meera Syal?
Based on three year’s of reporting by journalist Katherine Boo, this play’s set in the slums just next to Mumbai Airport. In the middle of the stage and often above it is a huge old-fashioned set of scales. Slum life held in its balance.

The slums contains a collection of rag-tag survivors living cheek by jowl under corrugated iron. The pickers collect the plastic bottles and bags. The sorters filter them. The risk-takers want metal, that’s where the money is, we’re told. But we see early on there’s danger there.
There’s also coruption. It’s everywhere. The neighbours tell tales on each other escalating to the police and prison. The police don’t want crime to affect their bonuses, so they cover murders up and look for bribes at every opportunity. The hospital lies about cause of death to cover their lack of care. The government worker tries to extort money from whoever she can and the fixer who won’t help the old family friend get money for an operation cos she thinks she can squeeze more payment out of him.

It’s a battle everyday. It’s unjust everyday. It’s Mumbai everyday.
Interestingly the strong roles here are the women. They shout, they scream, they fight and swear coarsely. It’s an interesting contrast to the girls who are fighting to go to school and fighting their arranged marriages. The most powerful scene for me is one girl who’s family beat her to submit to their will. She attempts suicide regularly and then one day she succeeds. It’s harrowing and the reaction of the mother and the friend are beautifully portrayed. What’s going on in the world when a 15 year old girl dreams of suicide?

The second half was much more powerful than the first. The corruption shown fully permutating all levels of society. We start to peel back layers and find out that the fixer (who looks down on the others) is actually sleeping with a policeman to get a better life and education for her daughter. The government employee who’s preying on the weak takes on a whole new level of sordid. The court system and judge who are only looking out for their promotions and pensions.

There is hope though in the form of Abdul, the skilful sorter son of one of the slum families… A glimmer, but it’s there. And that’s important.

First half — 3/5
Second half — 4/5