Bells (tour)

In rep with Chaos, Yasmin Khan’s controversial work is a love story set in a seedy club called Bells. Prostitutes here are forced to dance and tempt customers into sex as they themselves use the club as a hideaway from a life that has betrayed or rejected them.

Pepsi (Marc Elliot) is a Madonna loving rent boy. He dances his troubles away night after night, longing for a breast operation to please his lover Ashraf (Nicholas Khan). Ashraf’s partner, Madam (Sharona Sasson) runs Bells with an iron fist and keeps dancer/courtesan Aiesha (Shivani Ghai) right where she can see her. But beauty like hers cannot go unnoticed and lonely punter Charles (Damian Asher) falls for her charms and wants to pay Madam to free the courtesan.

The setting maybe new to the audience but the themes have been tackled elsewhere. I was reminded several times of the film Moulin Rouge as Aiesha is so similar to Nicole Kidman’s Satine. The overbearing Madam also seems like a mixture of Mama Morton and a character from a Linda La Plante novel.

There are effective scenes – many shocking – which shed light on the world of Mujra Clubs which began in Pakistan and have since become popular in the UK. Simulated oral sex, anal sex and provocative dancing followed by smatterings of violence give the piece the edge that it requires to stay in the memory.

But Khan’s writing although quite clever in places really does go round in circles. For example we see Elliot’s Pepsi repeating monologues as his domineering parents’ so much so that it feels like an extended scene from Oprah Winfrey exploring “Sins of the father.”

The performances though are solid and measured. Sasson’s Madam is scary and yet vulnerable as her partner wants her to count the cash rather than kiss him goodnight. Khan holds the piece together as the confused and angry Ashraf. Ghai stares wistfully as she plots a possible escape and also dances beautifully. Elliot’s lines are repetitious but he does well regardless and conveys Pepsi’s naïve sense of optimism.

This is an above average piece which does hold your interest. It’s just a shame that such controversial material hasn’t got a more original narrative hook as the Romeo/Juliet, prostitute/customer love story wipes the realism from the nightclub floor.

– Glenn Meads (reviewed at the Contact Theatre in Manchester)