Before the Millennium
The Old Fire Station, Oxford
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

THIS welcoming, multipurpose art centre in central Oxford has once again avoided the bling of the pantomime season without forsaking a festive offering. The Old Fire Station’s policy of commissioning imaginative new work for their Christmas show has paid off with an intriguing story of two Pakistani women working in Woolworths on the eve of the millennium.

Zoya’s traditional marriage into a British Pakistani family means her job at Woolworths allows her to cultivate her dreams of being able to afford to visit her family in her homeland, while her close friend and colleague, Iqra, is a temporary employee, studying politics at Oxford and with aspirations to return to Pakistan’s political cauldron.

Their pick-and-mix counter of the soon-to-be-defunct Woolworths emporium, decorated up for Christmas with the typical seasonal soundtrack, becomes a bright yet ephemeral symbol of their hopes and dreams until the arrival of a mysterious, first generation, British Pakistani girl shatters those illusions.

Gurjot Dhaliwal’s gives a heartfelt performance as Zoya, suppressing the deep sense of loss she feels for her family in Pakistan behind a cheerful and enthusiastic veneer, integrating British and Pakistani customs and values, while Prabhleen Oberoi’s Iqra provides an effective counterbalance with a tougher, more educated and cynical approach to life. Although from very different economic backgrounds, the two women’s shared bonds are the joy, substance and energy of the play.

With Hannah Khalique-Brown’s arrival as Faiza, an unsettling wraithlike figure tragically alienated from her own mother, the future lives and relationship of the two friends is forced into sharp focus.

Karim Khan’s script has humour, pathos and sharp observations of what some immigrant women sacrifice in order to fulfil familial duties and obligations. Set against the lights and tinsel of Christmas, the contrasting expectations behind the two women’s lives provide much of the substance of this engaging production. Although the introduction of a supernatural element is initially jarring, its function is slowly embedded and raises the drama to another level.

Adam Karim does a fine job as director, keeping the routine, small-scale and often mundane action within this dialogue-rich play interesting and thought-provoking, without overplaying the symbolic elements and he allows the concluding, renewed glow of hope to radiate a sense of seasonal cheer.

Runs until December 21. Box office: 01865 263-990; oldfirestation.org.uk.