Lotus Beauty deals in desperately important subject matter. Set in a beauty salon in the midst of the south Asian community in Southall, west London, it includes themes of domestic violence, depression, stillbirth, immigration and suicide. And the intermittent sound of trains charging past the salon is a reminder of the “jumpers” that the play speaks about – the disproportionate number of Asian women who kill themselves by rail suicides, and whose ghosts are said to haunt the tracks.
These are big issues, and it is refreshing to see this all-female cast of multi-generational British Asian actors on stage. So it is frustrating that Satinder Kaur Chohan’s script does not effectively tease out the themes it sets up. Part of the problem is the confused tone of the play. It begins with a sitcom vibe – accents and characters that seem as if they have stepped out of Citizen Khan or Goodness Gracious Me, but whose humour is not as sharp. The comedy also leaves little space for the play’s more dramatic and sinister issues – until a rather too pronounced switch in tone after the interval.
