Santi and Naz
Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol

SET around 1947 and the partition of India, the play introduces us to rural India through the eyes of Santi, a Sikh girl, and Naz, her Muslim best friend. Their awareness of the impending tragedy of mass migration and the accompanying carnage only shadows in their innocuous grasp of the adult world and amusing imitations of public figures such as Gandhi.

The writers Guleraana Mir and afshan d’souza-lodhi have cleverly mirrored national events through the girls’ personal lives as an increasing awareness of their futures, changing circumstances and an arranged marriage with its ensuing violence tears the girls apart. 

Director Madelaine Moore effectively uses the full stage with the girls’ joyous, uninhibited and often synchronised movements reflecting their early, pre-partition relationship and only slowly reins in and differentiates their movements as their contrasting sexualities, religious cultures and the expectations of adult life intrude on their innocence.