A “colourful portrait of village life in 1970s West Midlands during the era of flares, power cuts and glam rock”, Meera Syal’s novel Anita and Me is to have its stage première at Birmingham REP.
Anita And Me is a coming-of-age tale that follows Meena, the irreverent teenage daughter of the only Punjabi family in the mining village of Tollington. When she becomes friends with the impossibly feisty Anita, she thinks she has found her soul mate but her world is turned upside down and she finds herself caught between two cultures.
Meera Syal rose to prominence as one of the team who created the BBC comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me and became one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities when she portrayed the grandmother in the BBC series The Kumars at No. 42.
She said of Tanika Gupta’s stage adaptation, “I’m so thrilled that Anita and Me is being developed and premièred in the West Midlands where I grew up, where the novel is set and whose people and stories had such a huge influence on my childhood. I know the team will do it proud and I can't wait to see Anita, Meena and the rest of the crew come to life on stage. It will be, I'm pretty sure, bostin’!”
Birmingham REP artistic director Roxana Silbert added, “Meera’s brilliant novel is an engaging and funny tale set in a tight-knit community about a young girl trying to decide her cultural identity and I look forward immensely to realising it on stage.”
Mandeep Dhillon who plays Meena is known for her roles as Saz in the BBC3 series Some Girls and Dacia in the CBBC series Wolf Blood. She can also be seen in one of BBC iPlayer’s first original drama shorts, My Jihad. In 2011, she appeared in Little Platoons by Steve Waters at the Bush Theatre, London.
Birmingham actress Jalleh Alizadeh who plays Anita has appeared on screen in the ITV comedy Benidorm and the BBC dramas Doctors and Hustle.
Ayesha Dharker and Ameet Chana play Meena’s parents Daljit and Shyam.
Ayesha Dharker played Meena’s mother in the film Anita And Me. Her theatre credits include the West End and Broadway musical Bombay Dreams, The Ramayana at Birmingham REP and Arabian Nights at the RSC.
Ameet Chana was a regular in EastEnders and is currently appearing in the BBC drama My Jihad. On stage he played Nav in Happy Birthday Sunita at Watford Palace Theatre in 2014 and was in The Djinns of Eidgah by Abhishek Majumdar at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 2013.
The cast of Anita And Me also includes Amy Booth-Steel (Mrs Ormerod), Janice Connolly (Mrs Worrall), Joseph Drake (Sam), Kiren Jogi (Aunty Shaila), Megan McCormick (Tracey), Tarek Merchant (Ned), Chris Nayak (Uncle Amman) and Yasmin Wilde (Nanima).
Tanika Gupta’s most recent plays include Love n Stuff at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2013, The Empress for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Wah! Wah! Girls at Sadler’s Wells. She has also written extensively for BBC Radio drama.
The set is designed by Bob Bailey with lighting design by Chahine Yavroyan. Ben and Max Ringham compose and design the sound, and movement direction is by Ann Yee.
Anita and Me runs at Birmingham REP from Friday 9 until Saturday 24 October. Press night will be on Tuesday 13 October.
Meera Syal and Tanika Gupta will discuss their careers and the process of bringing Anita And Me to the stage on Saturday 10 October as part of the Birmingham Literature Festival. It will be recorded for the BBC Radio 3 programme Free Thinking.