‘A love letter to organisers, activists and dreamers’
Daniel Nelson
“Chasing Hares is a love letter to all of the organisers, activists and dreamers”, says playwright Sonali Bhattacharyya.
They are the people, she says, “who do the slow, patient work, quiet work of trying to build a fairer and more equal society”.
For that alone, I want to love her new play at the Young Vic.
Most of it is set in West Bengal, but it also touches on precariat struggles in contemporary Britain.
Exploitation of workers is the main theme, whether it’s child labour in India or bosses trying to squeeze delivery bikers in Britain. That’s welcome, too: how often does theatre tackle the glaring iniquities and inequities facing in the job market?
Further depth, colour and topicality come from a third thread, a clash of personalities and approaches by a couple in running a traditional South Asian folk theatre group.
Their feisty, foul-mouthed relationship adds humour and spark to the play’s Brechtian earnestness.
Everything is in place for a powerful, entertaining production. So why was I not as moved as I expected to be?
Perhaps I’m too old and cynical for agitprop, for idealism inspired by the dream of a fair and free world, in which everyone’s contribution is valued, where exploitation has been banished and tolerance, understanding and empathy reign.
Perhaps the characters too often seem to be vessels for the words they speak.
Or perhaps subtlety feels crushed beneath the didactic drive to make points about big issues, such as capitalist exploitation, solidarity and personal integrity.
I am the first to demand theatre that concerns itself with powerful, relevant topics, so I feel ashamed to admit that when such topics were forthrightly delivered in this ambitious production I pushed back and did not fully engage.
Others may not feel the same (The Guardian gave it four stars out of five), and I hope they will be encouraged by the play and go on to help make the world a better place.
+ 9 August, Disrupting the Diaspora: Radical South Asian Organising in the UK,
Amrit Wilson, Amardeep Singh Dhillon and Sonali Bhattacharyya, 9.45pm, free for same-day ticket-holders
* Chasing Hares, £12.60-£50, is at the Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 until 13 August. Info: https://www.youngvic.org/