Reader Reviews
Rafta, Rafta... (Lyttelton (National Theatre), West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | I'm not sure if Rafta, Rafta is a new play or a revival but it will need to be decided for awards season because it is one of the most enetrtaining plays I have seen for ages. Ayub Khan-Din's adaptation for a British-Asian family works brilliantly, helped by a superb design (the set was applauded!) and some wonderful performances. Harish Patel is uproariously funny and it is a long time since I laughed out loud so often, Arguably, Meera Syal is even better, particularly the way she conveys a range of emotions in a couple of seconds without needing to say a word. Although this is a frequently hysterical comedy it creates a genuine empathy with the characters and there were gasps of sympathy and stifled sobs at the end. Amidst a plethora of new work and worthy revivals it is good to see the National can still provide theatre which is heart-warming and gloriously entertaining. - David Baxter | 09 Aug 07 |
| I have to confess that by the interval I was rather disappointed. It was an enjoyable enough, but somewhat slight, comedy with uneven peerformances, some verging on caricature and some as flat as a pancake. However, it acquired considerable depth in the second half and I left very satisfied with this funny, warm-hearted play. My only gripe is that a designer with so much experience should have known better than to design a double-decker set disected by a staircase which affects the sightlines of a huge proportion of the audience in the front and at the sides. - Gareth James | 22 Jun 07 |
| OK, some of the performances tend towards the stilted, but you know it works. Perhaps, it is how white anglo-saxon protestants imagine a stereotypical Asian household to behaves? Rather the same way they may imagine a stereotypical Jewsih household to behave also? And as perpetuated by Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years that played here last year, and which I hated becaus the characters were SO wooden! The performances were ludicrously stilted, the only character that worked was the grandfather. Rafta, Rafta, however, works. It is simultaneously, touching, funny, and convincing. A bundle of laughs. The Kumars at 42 meets an Asian Coronation Street! I sat there wondering to myself how fortunate we are to have Nick Hytner who not only has the imagination to put a show like this on, but also the talent to make the "bloody thing"(to quote the father) work. Harish Patel, who plays the father, initially irritated me, but very quickly that changed, and he went on to become the star of the show. A terrific performance from a man, clearly, a master of his craft. It deserves to be seen by a wider audience, and I would love to see it get a West End transfer. Good Luck! - rds | 16 Jun 07 |
| When the NT get it right boy do they get it right and with this reworked play they have not only got it right but possibly surpassed the original. Unquestionably one of the most enjoyable evenings I ahve spent at the NT - it took my completely by surprise and the casting and acting took me to a level of enjoyment and admiration which had me rebooking to see it again in a few months time. Go see it, roar with laughter adn then as the pathos turns try to surpress the tears which almost engulf - unmissable. - Owen | 07 Jun 07 |
| The best play in London at the moment. A superb cast and production. I do advise though not to sit in the first four rows in the stalls as there is a restricted view of the upstairs in the set. A must see play for everyone. - Ivor | 06 Jun 07 |
| I have never seen All In Good Time, the play on which this fantastic production is based, and I have only a vague memory of the film adaptation, The Family Way, but that didn't matter at all because Ayub Khan-Din's play set in an Asian household in Bolton today is probably one of the funniest and most heart-rending I have ever seen. The story of a young second generation Asian couple living with the son's parents and unable to enjoy a sex life makes for a great domestic comedy in itself but there is a deep and tragic undercurrent running throughout the play of the son inheriting the sins of the father that came as a surprise, especially at the end which made me cry. The cast are all first-class, and Meera Syal's performance as the mother is so brilliantly restrained that I couldn't believe it was the same actress we have seen in The Kumars. The star is Harish Patel, an Indian actor who is hilarious as the dominating father, but unbelievably moving as well when he realises how so much of his married life has been a sham. This is one of the few plays that I want to see again. - Erin | 21 May 07 |
| Terrific GO and See it for yourself! - T H | 13 May 07 |
