Two Billion Beats (NHB Modern Plays)

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Nimmo Ismail's pacey direction means there is no lull in the energy of the production. Asha and Bettina constantly move; walking, climbing and once breaking into a joyful dance. There has been real consideration of the space of the Orange Tree, with Debbie Duru's simple design capturing the concrete surroundings of the girls' school.

The set itself is relatively simple, with the lighting and sound effects transporting the action to a dingy bus stop or a childhood bedroom. They also use smartphones to great effect, whether it’s Bettina showing pictures of the much sought-after hamster to her sister, or Asha being caught out – she’s not listening to Stormzy, she’s listening to an audio book about Sylvia Pankhurst.

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The presence of South Asian characters in British theatre is not the extreme rarity it once was. Whilst South Asians and people of colour more widely are still hugely underrepresented in theatre – as actors, writers, directors and in storylines – there has undoubtedly been some progress in recent years. What remains less visible, however, is South Asian characters engaging in rich discussions of history in all its complexity, from a questioning, left-wing perspective. If this is not for you, you should probably avoid playwright and Momentum activist Sonali Bhattacharyya’s Two Billion Beats, showing now at London’s Orange Tree Theatre. Director Nimmo Ismail; Designer Debbie Duru; Lighting Designer Alex Fernandes; Sound Designer Tingying Dong; Movement Director Chi-San Howard; Associate Movement Director Tian Brown-Sampson; Casting Director Christopher Worrall. In the loving but spikey relationship between this pair of sisters no reputations are entirely safe, not even that of the much-sanctified Mahatma Gandhi, for his dismissive views on the Dalit, the lowest of India’s caste of Harijans, or “ Untouchables.”

Seventeen-year-old Asha is an empathetic rebel, inspired by historical revolutionaries and iconoclasts Sylvia Pankhurst and B R Ambedkar. She’s unafraid of pointing out the hypocrisy around her but less sure how to actually dismantle it. The play features frequent cutaways and introspective soliloquies delivered by its lead, Asha (Shala Nyx). These are often followed by the loudspeakers serenading us with the dulcet tones of B R Ambedkar and Sylvia Pankhurst. In contrast Bettina (Tanvi Virmani), delivers a refreshing comedic reprieve with a delicate touch. Both actors bring strong, lively performances and successfully convey the source material engagingly. In fact, Asha’s own passionate desire to do the right thing is so strong that it takes over the plotting of the final third of the play, which becomes increasingly unconvincing despite the charm and humour of the writing. A sharper dose of realism would have worked better, and made the anti-racist strand much stronger. Still, there is much to enjoy in the playwright’s depiction of the two girls, their sibling banter, and their delight in standing up to bullies, especially the heart-warming dance sequence to Cardi B’s “Money” – a moment of pure joy.

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With just the two on-stage characters, there’s a lot of exposition rather than dramatization, and a lot of recollections of events that had already taken place. I think the actors would have been more than capable of personifying, for instance, the siblings’ mother, or at least some of the other pupils they regularly interact with, whether constructively and positively or not. I’m not sure the inclusion of an actual hamster, albeit in a suitable cage, added much to proceedings, though there are, at least, no concerns over animal welfare to report. This timely and thoughtful new play from Sonali Bhattacharyya…compellingly shows that the stakes can be high when people – especially women – from a diaspora community raise their voices.” WhatsOnStage Sonali Bhattacharyya was 2018 Channel 4 writer in residence at the Orange Tree, where she wrote Chasing Hares, winning the Sonia Friedman Production Award and Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award. Her credits include Megaball (National Theatre Learning), Slummers (Cardboard Citizens/ Bunker Theatre), 2066 (Almeida Theatre), The Invisible Boy (Kiln Theatre) and White Open Spaces (Pentabus Theatre – South Bank Show award-nominated). Recently reviewed at this venue: Rice | ★★★★ | October 2021 While the Sun Shines | ★★★★ | November 2021