Ambedkar, Pankhurst, two schoolgirls and a hamster

Daniel Nelson * Photo: Safiyya Ingar and Anoushka Chadha by Alex Brenner

Any play that uses the words of Indian anti-caste campaigner B R Ambedkar and British women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst gets my vote.

So does any production in which adult actors brilliantly bring to life the love and tension between schoolgirl sisters, one feisty and ambitious, the other nervous and uncertain.

My vote also goes to any work that subtly raises the issue of whether teachers are unconsciously biased against brown girls using Indian or feminist radicals rather than the Magna Carter as a school essay subject.

And there’s a vote, too, for highlighting school bullying and being smart enough to give the issue an emotional and racial twist.

There’s a hamster, as well. Or is it?

Two Billion Beats packs all this and more into 90 coruscating minutes. It’s a joy. Not just a joy – a thoughtful joy.

Perhaps the final quarter slightly loses intensity, and the short recordings of Ambedkar and Pankhurst’s beliefs (“The right kind of suffragette, the right kind of freedom fighter”) may be a little stodgy for some. But playwright Sonali Bhattacharyya wants to change the world and gives the piece life by making the political personal, and the personal funny and moving.

She can’t resist an earnest plea at the end (“We need a lifeline. But need to build one for one another right now, don’t we?”), but otherwise the dialogue is crisp, smart, funny, engaging.

This was the second play in I’ve watched in three days written and performed by British Asian women. The first, Hannah Kuman’s Eng-Er-Land, about a 13-year-old fan watching a Coventry v Manchester City football match, is currently on a national tour. It, too, has a light touch but plenty to say.

Bhattacharyya is “interested in dramatising the people's history, and putting characters centre stage who have previously been obscured.” Her schoolgirls certainly fit the bill.

Enjoy.

+ 16 February, Q&A with Sonali Bhattacharyya,  director Nimmo Ismail, Helen Pankhurst, women’s rights activist and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, and Meena Dhanda, philosopher specialising in anti-casteism and the work of B.R. Ambedkar, free with ticket.

* Two Billion Beats wa originally s at the Orange Tree Theatre, 1 Clarence Street TW9, until 5 March + livestreamed on 24 February and available on demand on 8-11 March. Info: 8940 3633/ Orange Tree. It gets a re-run in 2023 until 4 February. Info: 8940 3633/ Orange Tree