Sweetmeats review – the ripe fruits of late love

2026-02-15 - 11:55

Bush theatre, London Karim Khan’s tender portrait of South Asians finding companionship through shared grief and illness is played with crackling chemistry by Shobu Kapoor and Rehan Sheikh Love stories don’t traditionally start in diabetes clinics. Nor are two widowed South Asians dealing with declining health in their later years conventional romantic leads. But this is where Karim Khan’s quietly passionate play takes us. Despite its overlong running time, it’s a story that cuts straight to the heart. Khan is a whiz at writing authentic multilingual conversation. From their first meeting, Liaquat and Hema zoom between Hindi and English, building a vivid soundscape of diasporic life. In their sessions, Hema (played with sharp fire by Shobu Kapoor) is initially exasperated by Rehan Sheikh’s gentle, teddy-bear-like Liaquat and his blithe refusal to take his diabetes seriously. Over time, though, their chemistry starts to crackle, as they steal and feast on mangoes, and Hema forgets, for just a second, about their rising sugar levels. Continue reading...