There’s something horribly ironic about watching this brilliant play as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood threatens indefinite leave to remain. A different politician with a bob is in charge of terrorising migrants for I Dream of Theresa May at Tara Theatre, an electric black comedy about queer Indian immigrants living, loving and in once case possibly losing their minds under the UK’s hostile environment. Jokes about how different it would be with a brown person in charge of the Home Office were met with despairing hoots.
It’s the early 2010s and Nikhil (Taraash Mehrotra) is delighting in London’s gay scene, hooking up with a different man every night and introducing his bisexual best friend Jyoti (Tanya Katyal) to his favourite haunts (G-A-Y, rip, being the ideal starter bar before Dalston Superstore or Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club is a perfectly observed piece of London queer culture). The besties bonded back home in India when Nikhil’s parents disowned him for coming out, and lawyer Jyoti has followed Nikhil to London where he’s following his PhD with a research job attempting to cure cancer (no pressure).
