“a raucously funny and often moving family saga”
★★★★ The Standard
Three Generations. Two Love Stories. One Family Secret.
“In our shops we will be Kings of England. And we will make this place our place.
The Bains’ corner shop in Wolverhampton has been at the centre of the family for three generations.
Against the backdrop of a changing 20th century, Mrs Bains is balancing running the business, caring for her ailing husband and the demands of her two headstrong daughters, who each have their eye on a different kind of future.
Fast forward to the present day, a family tragedy pulls Arjan Bains back from a life in London. The shop represents everything he was trying to escape, but with his mother insisting it remain open, how long can he stay away?
a necessary and uplifting production”
★★★★ WhatsOnStage
Iqbal Khan’s epic production has an irresistible sweetness”
★★★★ Daily Mail
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti (A Kind of People) adapts the critically acclaimed novel from Sathnam Sanghera (Empireland).
Directed by Rep Associate Director and 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony Director, Iqbal Khan (East Is East, Of Mice and Men, Tartuffe, SILENCE).
Told with wit and a great deal of heart”
★★★★ North West End
a tender and touching tale”
★★★★ London Theatre
Dishoom Set Menu
Dishoom Birmingham
One Chamberlain Square B3 3AX
0121 809 5986
Hungry drama-lovers and theatre-goers alike – make your taste buds tingle with a pleasing Dishoom spread.
Select one small plate, one grill or ruby murray, one side dish or bread, and one pudding of your choice, for £30 per person. Think Samosas, Chaats, Mattar Paneer, Dishoom’s signature makhani Chicken Ruby and more.
Available everyday from 12pm onwards, from Wed 25 Jun – Sat 5 Jul. On arrival, simply show your event ticket for Marriage Material.
No reservation needed, but if you would like one, please book at dishoom.com.
Venue
Presented by
A Birmingham Rep and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre co-production.
Written by
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
Based on the novel by
Sathnam Sanghera
Directed by
Iqbal Khan
Set & Costume by
Good Teeth
Scroll down for full list of cast & creatives.
Price
Special Offers
3 for 2: Add 3 shows into your basket and at checkout enjoy 33% off each production for selected productions
T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Aged 16 to 25 Discounted tickets are available for this production for registered 16-25 members on Thu 26 Jun 2.30pm & 7pm and Thu 3 Jul 2.30pm (Chilled Performance) & 7.30pm.
T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Teens Go Free: Receive one complimentary young persons ticket (13-19 years) when you book one standard ticket on Tue 1 Jul and Wed 2 Jul performances at 7.30pm .
To apply, select a full price ticket and free teen ticket once you have selected your seats. T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Rep Friends
Become a Rep Friend and save up to 15% with no transaction fees, plus many more membership benefits.
T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Access Performances
Audio Described: Sat 5 Jul at 2.30pm (described by Carolyn Smith)
A Free Touch Tour is available to book at 1pm before the Audio Described performance.
BSL Interpreted: Sat 5 Jul at 2.30pm (interpreted by Harjit Jagdev)
Captioned: Tue 1 Jul at 7.30pm (captioned by Cara Lawless)
Chilled: Thu 3 Jul at 2.30pm
Running Time
Approximately 2 hours 35 minutes including interval
Age Guidance
14+
Please note, no under 5s will be admitted to the auditorium.
Content Advice
Contains strong language including racial slurs and scenes that may impact some audience members including sexual references and themes of racism.
Please read the full content advice for further information.
This production includes smoke, haze and strobe.
Production Photos
Photography by Helen Murray
Photography by Helen Murray
Photography by Helen Murray
Photography by Helen Murray
Photography by Helen Murray
Photography by Helen Murray
Photography by Helen Murray
Photography by Helen Murray
Rehearsal Photos
Photography by Helen Murray.
Photography by Helen Murray.
Photography by Helen Murray.
Photography by Helen Murray.Based on the novel by Sathnam Sanghera. Rehearsals ; Cast: Tommy Belshaw, Anoushka Deshmukh, Jaz Singh Deol, Celeste Dodwell, Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji, Directed by Iqbal Khan ; Movement Director Anjali Mehra ; Casting Director Jatinder Chera ; Assistant Director Harper K Hefferon ; Lyric Hammersmith ; London, UK ; 29 April 2025 ; Credit and copyright: Helen Murray ; www.helenmurrayphotos.com
Photography by Helen Murray.
Photography by Helen Murray.
Photography by Helen Murray.
Cast
Tommy Belshaw
Tommy recently performed as Charlie and Shadwell in the RSC’s production of The Buddha of Suburbia at the Barbican Theatre.
Previous credits include: Sister Boniface Mysteries (BBC) and feature film My Fault: London (Amazon Studios)
Jaz Singh Deol
Jaz was recently featured in Netflix’s Toxic Town and John Woo’s The Killer (Peacock). Before that, he portrayed Kheerat Panesar, a series regular, in EastEnders for three years.
Theatre credits include: Tartuffe (Haymarket Theatre), Lions and Tigers (Sam Wanamaker), Djinns of Eidgah (Royal Court), Linda (Royal Court Theatre), Snookered (Bush Theatre), and Mush and Me (Adelaide Festival).
TV credits include: The Sister Boniface Mysteries (BBC), The Boy with the Top Knot (BBC), Lovesick (Netflix), Code of a Killer (ITV), The Halcyon (ITV), and Love, Lies and Records (BBC1).
In film, Jaz has starred and co-produced in the brilliant short film Terminal, which is about to hit the festival circuit, along with lead roles in Viceroy’s House (Pathé) and Darkness Visible (BFI).
He has also lent his voice to games such as Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (Ubisoft) and Forza Horizon (Microsoft Studios).
Anoushka Deshmukh
Anoushka graduated at East 15 and since then has performed in several shows for the National Youth Theatre including If It Didn’t Matter and My Brother’s a Genius, as well in Ghar Ghar written and directed by Annum Salman at the Camden Fringe. Anoushka has also lead some short films such as The Meal directed by Nikhil Rampal and Rishi Sharma.
Celeste Dodwell
Stage credits include: Much Ado About Nothing and An Octoroon (National Theatre), Hay Fever (West End) and The Sweet Science of Bruising (Wilton’s Music Hall).
TV credits include: The Castaways (Paramount+), Atlanta (FX), Sick Of It and Urban Myths (Sky), Call The Midwife (BBC) and Endeavour (ITV).
Film credits include: Living and Cyrano.
Avita Jay
Theatre includes: Expendable (Royal Court); A Tupperware of Ashes (National); The Secret Garden (Regent’s Open Air); The Empress, Falkland Sound, The Comedy of Errors, The Winter’s Tale (RSC); Jinnistan (Òran Mór, Traverse); Favour (Bush); The Lovely Bones (Birmingham Rep); Billionaire Boy (NST/UK tour); The Secret Garden (York Theatre Royal); The Jungle Book (National Tour); Bottled Up (Lyric Hammersmith); Bring on the Bollywood (National Tour); We’re Stuck (Shoreditch Town Hall/National Tour); Rapunzel, Warde Street (Park); Pioneer (Sheffield Crucible/Tour); Unsung (Wilton’s Music Hall); The Merry Wives of Windsor (national tour); Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World (Southwark Playhouse); Spare (New Diorama).
Television includes: Casualty; Doctors; The Good Ship Murder; Emmerdale; Silent Witness; Coronation Street; L8R.
Film includes: By Any Other Name; The Rezort, London, Paris, New York; Twenty8K.
Avita also narrates audiobooks for Audible and works for the charity, InterAct Stroke Support
Kiran Landa
Kiran Landa is a British Indian actress who gained her early training at The Television Workshop, Nottingham.
Kiran can currently be seen in the latest series of ITV’s Grace, and will star in new British feature film, Synthesized set for release later this year.
Theatre credits include: Lotus Beauty (Hampstead Theatre); Extinct (one woman play, Theatre Royal Stratford East); War Horse (National Theatre UK and International Tour); The Contingency Plan (Sheffield Crucible); Arabian Nights (Royal Shakespeare Company); Primetime (Royal Court); Great Expectations (English Touring Theatre/ Watford Palace Theatre) and Dov and Ali (Theatre 503).
Television work includes: Grace (ITV); FBI International (CBS); Coronation Street (ITV); Blindspot (Channel 5); Ackley Bridge (Channel 4); Line of Duty (BBC); Scott and Bailey (ITV); Hollyoaks (Channel 4); 4 O’Clock Club (BBC); Doctors (BBC) and Wire in the Blood (ITV).
Film credits includes: Synthesized (Shout to the Top Productions); Jadoo: Kings of Curry (Air Productions) and Shoot on Sight (Aron Govil Productions).
Omar Malik
Omar trained at the Manchester School of Theatre.
Television credits include: The Tower Series 3 (ITV); Hollyoaks and No Offence (Channel 4); The Tracey Ullman Show Series 2 (BBC & HBO); Behind The Filter, Doctors, The Dumping Ground Series 6 & 8, Hounslow Diaries, Call The Midwife, Holby City, Moving On and Dracula (BBC); Coronation Street (ITV).
Stage credits include: Abigail’s Party (Theatre Royal Stratford East); My Beautiful Laundrette (Leicester Curve/Leeds Playhouse); East Is East (Nottingham Playhouse/Northern Stage); Gangsta Granny UK Tour (Birmingham Stage); Feverdream: Southside (Citizen’s Theatre); Wanted! Robin Hood (The Library Theatre).
Irfan Shamji
Irfan will soon begin rehearsals for Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith. Prior to this, he finished a run at the Bush Theatre starring in The Cord, reuniting with writer/director Bijan Sheibani for the fourth time.
Other stage credits include: Sons of The Prophet (Hampstead Theatre), Hamlet and Metamorphoses (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), The Arrival (Bush Theatre), One for Sorrow (Royal Court), Dance Nation (the Almeida) and Joe White’s Mayfly (Orange Tree Theatre, for which he was award Equity’s Clarence Darwent Award.
Television credits include: BBC/HBO’s Industry, reprising the role of ‘Anraj’, Disney+’s Shardlake, ITV’s The Walk-In with Stephen Graham, The Ipcress File with Lucy Boynton, Joe Cole and Tom Hollander, BBC’s Informer, and Netflix’s The Dark Crystal.
Irfan was educated at RADA, where in his final year he was picked out by Kenneth Branagh to play ‘Laertes’ opposite Tom Hiddleston.
Creative Team
Writer
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
Based on the novel by
Sathnam Sanghera
Sathnam Sanghera
Director
Iqbal Khan
Iqbal Khan
Iqbal Khan is an Associate Director of Birmingham Rep, an Associate Artist of Box Clever Theatre Company, and the Artistic Director of the 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.
He has worked extensively with the RSC, as well as directing for opera and classical music events. Credits include East is East (Birmingham Rep, National Theatre), Tartuffe (Birmingham Rep, with RSC), Otello, The Wildman of the West Indies and Shakespeare at The Bowl. He has directed in Paris, Japan (awarded a year long prestigious fellowship, based in Tokyo), had recent residencies and delivered lectures at Michigan State, La Fayette, Nanjing, and was the 2019 Michael Douglas Visiting Artist at UC Santa Barbara. . His production of Tartuffe at the RSC was broadcast on BBC 4 in 2023, and can now be watched on BBC iPlayer. Most recently, Iqbal’s work can be seen in Silence at Tara Arts and Animal Farm at the Octagon Theatre.
Set & Costume Design
Good Teeth
Good Teeth
Good Teeth is a theatre design studio founded by artists and designers James Perkins & Victoria Smart. They formed Good Teeth after a decade of collaboration. Ongoing creative dialogue, breadth of experience and career sustainability are central to their practice. They are Artistic Associates at the Lyric Hammersmith.
Lighting Designer
Simeon Miller
Simeon Miller
Sound Design & Composition by
Holly Khan
Holly Khan
Movement Director
Anjali Mehra
Anjali Mehra
Associate Movement Director
Rakhee Sharma
Rakhee Sharma
Voice & Dialect Coach
Gurkiran Kaur
Gurkiran Kaur
Assistant Director
Harper K Hefferon
Harper K Hefferon
Associate Sound Designer
Anna Wood
Anna Wood
Casting Director