Hanif Kureishi, who was left tetraplegic by a fall in Rome in 2022, has “spoken movingly” about the sustenance he has drawn from the prospect of this RSC staging of his debut novel, “The Buddha of Suburbia” (1990), a coming-of-age tale set in 1970s London.
So it’s a relief and a pleasure, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph, to be able to report that director Emma Rice, who also adapted the book, “has nailed it”, creating a funny, engrossing evening that you’ll leave feeling on a “rare high”.
Studded with comic sex scenes and the pop music of the period, it is a “glorious” production, said Clive Davis in The Times. I found the novel’s prose “laborious at times”, but this staging is “preternaturally light and nimble”, combining as it does the “knowing satire of the original with an extraordinarily fluid theatrical language”.
For a fairly short novel, “The Buddha of Suburbia” is a “big and unwieldy thing”, said Louis Chilton in The Independent. An incident-packed, “orgiastic odyssey”, it follows Karim, a mixed-race bisexual teenager, from suburban Bromley to the London stage, and on to “druggy excess” in New York.
This production, for which Kureishi is credited as co-adaptor, has a “playful, kaleidoscopic quality”, said Sarah Hemming in the FT. The costumes and choreography revel in the period setting. And the superb cast bring great “warmth, pain and humanity” to their characters – led by Dee Ahluwalia, who’s “outstanding” as Karim: funny, vulnerable and charismatic. Yet the “episodic nature of the piece does begin to tell: it feels busy, overstuffed and starts to sag towards the end”.
Even with a running time of almost three hours, Rice doesn’t manage to pack everything in, said Dominic Maxwell in The Sunday Times. Admirers of the book may miss key aspects of the story about Charlie, Karim’s punk friend. They may also find the edgy energy of the novel somewhat dissipated, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. But what’s left is a lovable play, filled with deadpan humour and joyful theatricality. “Angela Carter hailed Kureishi’s novel for its humour and heart: this show comes with bundles of both.”
Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (01789 331111). Until 1 June. Running time: 2hrs 50mins