Two Billion Beats (NHB Modern Plays)

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Asha leads the performance, and it is her youthful earnestness, intelligence and curiosity that captures the heart of this play. One of the highlights takes place in the first ten minutes, as Asha describes to us how she structured her argument in an essay about Gandhi and Ambedkar, as though it is a boxing match. There are several moments in the play when we are moved from the day-to-day life of Asha and Bettina to Asha’s internal monologue. This helps the pace of the play and although it does feel like the piece loses some momentum towards the final section, the last moments are powerful, and the erupting applause was well deserved. The set itself is relatively simple, with the lighting and sound effects transporting the action to a dingy bus stop or a childhood bedroom. They also use smartphones to great effect, whether it’s Bettina showing pictures of the much sought-after hamster to her sister, or Asha being caught out – she’s not listening to Stormzy, she’s listening to an audio book about Sylvia Pankhurst. Sonali Bhattacharyya was 2018 Channel 4 writer in residence at the Orange Tree, where she wrote Chasing Hares, winning the Sonia Friedman Production Award and Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award. Her credits include Megaball (National Theatre Learning), Slummers (Cardboard Citizens/ Bunker Theatre), 2066 (Almeida Theatre), The Invisible Boy (Kiln Theatre) and White Open Spaces (Pentabus Theatre – South Bank Show award-nominated). Two Billion Beats is a highly believable snapshot of modern adolescent life that also manages to touch on many enduring themes. The production should resonate with everyone; much of the language may be very much of today, but the themes of teenage idealism and trying to find your place in the world are universally timeless. Seventeen-year-old Asha is an empathetic rebel, inspired by historical revolutionaries and iconoclasts Sylvia Pankhurst and B R Ambedkar. She’s unafraid of pointing out the hypocrisy around her but less sure how to actually dismantle it.

Strictly speaking, Two Billion Beats is not a two-hander. The hamster appears in the fur towards the end of the play, but is sadly uncredited. Whoever you are, you did a bang-up job. Conscientious and questing, she may have just got excellent marks for her history essay but, in her mother’s eyes she has committed an unpardonable slander in daring to criticise the Mahatma; if anything should be untouchable, it is his reputation. Not so, argues Ascha; the proper object of admiration should be none other than a Dalit, B. R. Ambedkar, who played a crucial role in drafting the Indian constitution. In the loving but spikey relationship between this pair of sisters no reputations are entirely safe, not even that of the much-sanctified Mahatma Gandhi, for his dismissive views on the Dalit, the lowest of India’s caste of Harijans, or “ Untouchables.”Recently reviewed at this venue: Rice | ★★★★ | October 2021 While the Sun Shines | ★★★★ | November 2021

Two Billion Beats follows Asha (Safiyya Ingar), a bright sixth former set on attending SOAS, as her assignments lead her to discover the work of Dalit lawyer and activist B.R. Ambedkar and begin to question her mother’s idolisation of Mahatma Gandhi. Meanwhile, Asha navigates school bullying and racism along with her younger sister, Bettina (Anoushka Chadha). Duru invokes the girls’ landscape with minimal details – a bus-stop bench and a school ‘Main Entrance’ sign. Apparently the school is ‘outstanding in all areas’. The teachers do work hard. When Bettina interrupts a lesson on climate change with a question about asylum seekers (only ‘to look badass’) her teacher takes her seriously and gives her a book about Malala. You do realise, however, that school is sometimes a blunt instrument. Mrs L tells Ash to ‘draw examples from her own experience’ – Gandhi and Ambedkar being suitable. The essay on Sylvia Pankhurst is less successful – but is that really because she was a white woman, as Ash believes, or because Ash hasn’t fully understood her views?

Ultimately the play is rather let down by a degree of early-career shakiness. For starters, it’s weird to explicitly set it in Leicester and not bother with Leicester accents. A laboured attempt to indict Asha’s teacher of Karen-ist hypocrisy feels like it’s been approached completely wrongly (it hinges on the idea Emmeline Pankhurst is as big a sacred cow as Gandhi). And the bullying saga spirals out of control in a way that serves Asha‘s newfound philosophical beliefs well, but is, to be blunt, totally ridiculous. In fact, Asha’s own passionate desire to do the right thing is so strong that it takes over the plotting of the final third of the play, which becomes increasingly unconvincing despite the charm and humour of the writing. A sharper dose of realism would have worked better, and made the anti-racist strand much stronger. Still, there is much to enjoy in the playwright’s depiction of the two girls, their sibling banter, and their delight in standing up to bullies, especially the heart-warming dance sequence to Cardi B’s “Money” – a moment of pure joy. Unfortunately this has massively pissed off her mum, which is why we findAsha killing time after school until her mum’s nightshift begins. Meanwhile, it becomes apparent Bettina has problems of her own: some kids have been bullying her on the bus home, and she’s clinging to Asha in the hope her big sister might lamp her oppressors. Two Billion Beats left me with much to process and reflect on, but one message came through clear: we must crucially examine our understanding of mainstream heroes. Such probing questions may just be a step towards radical social justice.

the play authentically captures an era in which coming of age is often synonymous with developing a progressive political stance” The elder girl, Ascha, has a problem nearer home; at home, in fact. It is her mother. While Ascha is a clever and motivated student, she has offended her deeply by daring to take issue with Gandhi. Bouncing with wit, Sonali Bhattacharyya’s upbeat play is a coming-of-age story about the unfairness of growing up in a world where you don’t make the rules. Sonali Bhattacharyya was 2018 Channel 4 writer in residence at the OT, where she wrote Chasing Hares, winning the Sonia Friedman Production Award and Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award, produced at the Young Vic in 2022. A two-handed coming of age story set in the round, about many things, but most notably accepting the nuanced flaws of individuals. Written by young award-winning playwright Sonali Bhattacharyya, the play maintains her focus on illuminating the stories of the marginalised and democratising dramatization. It delves into numerous topical and ethical questions of morality and our selection of role models. It aims to prescribe and confront too many contemporary societal issues, sometimes without forming the full necessary space for their exploration.In Bhattacharyya’s entertaining play, two teenage sisters negotiate the battlefield of school while learning about the political battlefields of the past.” The Stage on Two Billion Beats as part of Inside/Outside Safiyya Ingar is an energetic Asha; fiercely intelligent and bursting with energy and indignation at the unfairness of life. The character embraces all the idealism of youth with an uncompromising commitment to her principals, exasperated with what she sees as injustice and double standards in the world. Ingar is spirited and brimming with energy; she shows defiance and pride, but also snippets of vulnerability, especially regarding her sometimes fractious relationship with her mother. Sonali Bhattacharyya's play Two Billion Beats is an insightful, heartfelt coming-of-age story and a blazing account of inner-city, British-Asian teenage life. It was originally presented in the Inside/Outside season, livestreamed from the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, before receiving a production there in this full-length version in 2022, directed by Nimmo Ismail. She’s a don! I’ll be completely frank – I wasn’t aware of her work before this project. People of colour in this industry have to hustle and make our voices heard, so when I met her for the first time and she was like a Muslim Hijabi woman, I was like: I’m working with the best here, with the people that I need and I want to work with. Directed by Nimmo Ismail, whose work includes Glee & Me by Stuart Slade and The Christmas Star by Russell T Davies (both Royal Exchange Manchester), Fragments by Cordelia Lynn and My England by Somalia Seaton (both at Young Vic), and SNAP by Danusia Samal (The Old Vic), and Tian Brown-Sampson, whose directing credits include Different Book Covers (Tamasha), Lost Laowais (VAULT Festival) and Like Yesterday (Young Vic).