Review: Britain's Got Bhangra

Confession out of the way first – I am a fan of bhangra music. Which helps enormously, obviously, with a play called Britain's Got Bhangra (BGB).

However, even if you've only ever thought negatively about a dhol drum, BGB will surely make you smile. Only the most curmudgeonly could find fault with a musical show performed with such heart and vigour.

British Asian Theatre company Rifco doesn't set out to create challenging, issue led work. The issues

are important, but entertainment is far more prominent in its aims.

Under artistic director Pravesh Kumar, it achieves one of these aims explicitly – entertainment – while also raising issues of the contemporary Asian experience in a more subtle way. The story could be dismissed as lightweight froth – a poor boy from a village in India comes to England, makes his fortune as one of Britain's first bhangra stars and promptly loses it when he succumbs to the temptations of the West. Throw in an illegitimate child story and the job's done.

In this production by creating a pastiche of Bollywood dramas and English soap opera, Kumar creates a canvas on which the actors are free to paint vibrant, colourful pictures.

Rifco also achieved an impressive feat – bringing a far more multi-cultural audience through the doors of the Playhouse than is normally there.