Review: THE EMPRESS, Lyric Hammersmith

The Empress, with dual love stories, an abandoned Indian ayah (nursemaid), Rani Das, trying to make her way in Victorian Britain and Colonialism at its most villainous should offer audiences a stimulating evening.

There are meaty themes, moments of humour and insight, and the standard of professionalism you’d expect from a Royal Shakespeare Company production first staged in Stratford in 2013 and now playing at the Lyric Hammersmith. But somehow Tanika Gupta’s script doesn’t quite take off.

A shame really, as she has important things to say about the ill-treatment of poor Indian immigrants and how ridiculous the elite behaved at the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1887, but this play edges on the didactic. A Horrible Histories gone wrong, with extreme characters and not enough nuanced shades of grey.

That’s not to say you can’t still appreciate an eager cast, fantastic design by Rosa Maggiora, with her circle of life, two-tier set – Royalty at the top and poor Indians down below – Ben and Max Ringham’s evocative music and sound design, and impressive lighting from Matt Haskins.

In The Empress, Munshi (Indian language teacher) Abdul Karim is ‘gifted’ to Queen Victoria and a deep friendship develops, later hushed up after the Queen’s death in 1901. The 2017 film, Victoria & Abdul, starring Judi Dench, explores this relationship in more depth.

Alexandra Gilbreath dominates with her jaunty performance of Queen Victoria, one minute sticking up for her Munshi and lavishing him with gifts; and then the next retracting her offer to award Abdul a CBE after her son and Parliament object. Her dedicated assistant, Lady Sarah (a feisty portrayal by Francesca Faridany) rather blatantly evokes many bad traits associated with Empire, including racism, duplicity and superiority.

Running alongside this Victorian version of The Crown is Rani’s Dickens-esque story of being dumped dockside by a ghastly English family when they no longer require her services, after an ocean crossing with a wide cast of characters. She’s not allowed on the same deck as the haughty Europeans and meets ambitious Indians, including one who’s determined to learn how to dance and speak French. She also makes friends with a well-intentioned lascar (Indian sailor) called Hari (an excellent performance from Aaron Gill).

Tanya Katyal is the star of the show as an expressive, young Rani, fervent to learn and demonstrating strength to survive after being impregnated by her master (Oliver Hembrough) and giving birth to a daughter, Asha. She ends up working for the first Indian MP, Dadabhai Naoroji (Simon Rivers) – who rubs shoulders with Gandhi and Mohammed Ali Jinna and is an early campaigner for home rule. This side plot alone would make a good play.

Other roles worth a mention are Nicola Stephenson’s invigorating Lascar Sally, and her kind and wise friend, Firoza (Avita Jay).

There’s a lot of history to be found in The Empress’ three-hour running time. Perhaps some scenes could be tightened and the ending, which ends a bit abruptly with Abdul’s dismissal, could leave us with some hope for Asha’s future. And the future of other young Indians on British soil.

The Empress runs at the Lyric Hammersmith until October 28.

Photo credit: Ellie Kurttz

Read Tanika Gupta's guest blog on adapting The Empress here.

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