A Passage to India

This is a bit of a sweeping epic to get on stage, a story of India 20 years or so before Independence was gained and the strange (and strained) relationships between the "natives" and the ruling British ex-pats. Somehow, however, this production manages to do it, to draw us into this strange, hot, unfamiliar world of privilege and poverty amd to make us care.

The production is kept simple and fast paced, there is a lot of ground to cover, with occasional personal narration to audience to skip over important, but unstaged pieces - it felt a bit clunky at first but actually became a seamless part of what is a very umaginative production.

Ensemble acting is the order of the day here but the central roles of Mrs Moore (Liz Crowther), Fielding (Richard Goulding), Adela (Phoebe pryce) and Dr Aziz (Asif Khan) carry a lot of the dialogue and come over as credible, three dimensional characters - flawed, likeable, irritating and confused. It is their interplay with those around them, British and Hindu that creates the drama and they do it splendidly.

I thoroughly enjoyed this imaginative production ... recommended