Two Billion Beats (NHB Modern Plays)

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Recently reviewed at this venue: Rice | ★★★★ | October 2021 While the Sun Shines | ★★★★ | November 2021 In fact, Asha’s own passionate desire to do the right thing is so strong that it takes over the plotting of the final third of the play, which becomes increasingly unconvincing despite the charm and humour of the writing. A sharper dose of realism would have worked better, and made the anti-racist strand much stronger. Still, there is much to enjoy in the playwright’s depiction of the two girls, their sibling banter, and their delight in standing up to bullies, especially the heart-warming dance sequence to Cardi B’s “Money” – a moment of pure joy. Seeing my character, Asha, a South Asian female-identifying character go through this journey herself, and with what happens in the play, she comes out the other side of it with her own voice still intact – it’s one of the best things I’ve ever read to be honest. It’s refreshing to see, and representative of what I wish I was like at seventeen. I’m like what Asha is in the play now, and I wish I was like her when I was that age. I would have gotten so much done. This is the kind of story that I want people to hear. Every part of me was screaming out to tell this story because people need to hear it. How does the play reflect growing up in Britain as a South Asian woman of colour? Two Billion Beats follows Asha (Safiyya Ingar), a bright sixth former set on attending SOAS, as her assignments lead her to discover the work of Dalit lawyer and activist B.R. Ambedkar and begin to question her mother’s idolisation of Mahatma Gandhi. Meanwhile, Asha navigates school bullying and racism along with her younger sister, Bettina (Anoushka Chadha).

Two Billion Beats is showing at the Orange Tree Theatre until 5 March and is available to stream on demand between 8-11 March 2022.A complete contrast to her elder sister, Bettina is more interested in getting a pet hamster and pop music than in reading or politics. But her friendly persona and eagerness to please makes her a target of Adeel and some other boys, who rob her of the money she is saving to buy a pet. When she asks her more assertive sister for help, things at first get better and then soon spin out of control as both the teens discover that doing the right thing is not as easy as they expected. Bhattacharyya’s warmly sympathetic portrait of the two girls is the beating heart of the play, and she has a real talent for sibling dialogue, which is both emotionally true and comic. In Bhattacharyya’s entertaining play, two teenage sisters negotiate the battlefield of school while learning about the political battlefields of the past.” The Stage on Two Billion Beats as part of Inside/Outside

Sonali Bhattacharyya was 2018 Channel 4 writer in residence at the Orange Tree, where she wrote Chasing Hares, winning the Sonia Friedman Production Award and Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award. Her credits include Megaball (National Theatre Learning), Slummers (Cardboard Citizens/ Bunker Theatre), 2066 (Almeida Theatre), The Invisible Boy (Kiln Theatre) and White Open Spaces (Pentabus Theatre – South Bank Show award-nominated). Seventeen-year-old Asha is an empathetic rebel, inspired by historical revolutionaries and iconoclasts Sylvia Pankhurst and B R Ambedkar. She’s unafraid of pointing out the hypocrisy around her but less sure how to actually dismantle it. A two-handed coming of age story set in the round, about many things, but most notably accepting the nuanced flaws of individuals. Written by young award-winning playwright Sonali Bhattacharyya, the play maintains her focus on illuminating the stories of the marginalised and democratising dramatization. It delves into numerous topical and ethical questions of morality and our selection of role models. It aims to prescribe and confront too many contemporary societal issues, sometimes without forming the full necessary space for their exploration. Directed by Nimmo Ismail and Tian Brown-Sampson, with a design by Debbie Duru, Two Billion Beats is a lively story beautifully performed by Shala Nyx and Tanvi Virman, who take the roles first performed by Safiyya Ingar and Anoushka Chadha in 2022. Nyx’s Asha is a fine mixture of breezy outward confidence and inner uncertainty, vulnerability even. Her struggle to reconcile moral imperatives with the expectations of her mum and Mrs L is lovely to watch. Likewise, Virman’s Bettina explores both the comedy of her character, having some of the funniest lines, and its pathos. Very touching. A well-written and sympathetic account of teen life. Two Billion Beats, Sonali Bhattacharyya’s new play for the Orange Tree, draws us in with snappy lines and raucous energy before delivering an emotional wallop.This timely and thoughtful new play from Sonali Bhattacharyya…compellingly shows that the stakes can be high when people – especially women – from a diaspora community raise their voices.” WhatsOnStage Safiyya Ingar is an energetic Asha; fiercely intelligent and bursting with energy and indignation at the unfairness of life. The character embraces all the idealism of youth with an uncompromising commitment to her principals, exasperated with what she sees as injustice and double standards in the world. Ingar is spirited and brimming with energy; she shows defiance and pride, but also snippets of vulnerability, especially regarding her sometimes fractious relationship with her mother.

Asha leads the performance, and it is her youthful earnestness, intelligence and curiosity that captures the heart of this play. One of the highlights takes place in the first ten minutes, as Asha describes to us how she structured her argument in an essay about Gandhi and Ambedkar, as though it is a boxing match. There are several moments in the play when we are moved from the day-to-day life of Asha and Bettina to Asha’s internal monologue. This helps the pace of the play and although it does feel like the piece loses some momentum towards the final section, the last moments are powerful, and the erupting applause was well deserved.The elder girl, Ascha, has a problem nearer home; at home, in fact. It is her mother. While Ascha is a clever and motivated student, she has offended her deeply by daring to take issue with Gandhi. The return of this exhilarating production following its acclaimed world premiere at the OT in 2022. Bouncing with wit, Sonali Bhattacharyya’s upbeat new play is a coming-of-age story about the unfairness of growing up in a world where you don’t make the rules. A blazing account of inner city British-Asian teenage life, this exhilarating world premiere asks what the cost of speaking up really is. Sonali Bhattacharyya's play Two Billion Beats is an insightful, heartfelt coming-of-age story and a blazing account of inner-city, British-Asian teenage life. It was originally presented in the Inside/Outside season, livestreamed from the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, before receiving a production there in this full-length version in 2022, directed by Nimmo Ismail. What will happen, their mother wonders, if – or rather when – the history being studied is British rather than Indian, and such revered figures as the Pankhursts fall under Ascha’s rebellious scrutiny.

The play features frequent cutaways and introspective soliloquies delivered by its lead, Asha (Shala Nyx). These are often followed by the loudspeakers serenading us with the dulcet tones of B R Ambedkar and Sylvia Pankhurst. In contrast Bettina (Tanvi Virmani), delivers a refreshing comedic reprieve with a delicate touch. Both actors bring strong, lively performances and successfully convey the source material engagingly. First seen in a 20-minute version in April 2021, as part of the Orange Tree's foray into theatrical streaming Outside, Two Billion Beats is Sonali Bhattacharyya's engaging and vibrant play that explores the relationship between two South Asian teenage sisters as they confront injustice, racism and the realities of growing up.

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The most interesting thing about Bhattacharyya’s play is the manner by which Asha takes on board the teachings of Ambedkar – and later Sylvia Pankhurst – and ends up applying them to her own life: her outlook on the world shifts, but quite subtly and interestingly, with meaningful consequences for how the story plays out. This timely and thoughtful new play from Sonali Bhattacharyya…compellingly shows that the stakes can be high when people – especially women – from a diaspora community raise their voices” WhatsOnStage The relationship between the siblings is very believable and the chemistry between the actors is palpable; the younger sister wants sympathy and validation from her older sibling, who rejects her and finds her annoying. It is a very recognisable scenario. With just the two on-stage characters, there’s a lot of exposition rather than dramatization, and a lot of recollections of events that had already taken place. I think the actors would have been more than capable of personifying, for instance, the siblings’ mother, or at least some of the other pupils they regularly interact with, whether constructively and positively or not. I’m not sure the inclusion of an actual hamster, albeit in a suitable cage, added much to proceedings, though there are, at least, no concerns over animal welfare to report.