In the midst of lockdown, The Orange Tree brought live theatre into our living rooms with their Inside/Outside broadcasts, each comprised of three short pieces of new writing. One of those pieces was Sonali Bhattacharyya’s Two Billion Beats, which has now been developed into a full length play, currently premiering at Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre.
The two-hander features a pair of sisters, who regularly meet at the bus stop at the end of the school day. Underneath the breezeblock building and a sign proclaiming the school’s Ofsted rating, Asha and Bettina thrash out their different priorities and very similar struggles.
Asha (Safiyya Ingar) is the older of the two, and is one of the smartest students in the schools, with University lying just ahead of her, she conveys confidence and conviction in every word she utters. The younger Bettina (Anoushka Chadha) just needs to survive the bus ride home, faced with the bullies who torment her.
Two Billion Beats is on one hand a clever coming of age story, there is a form of sibling rivalry, with Asha being progressively more annoyed at Bettina ‘just standing there, doing nothing’. But instead of dwelling on the conflict, Bhattacharyya’s play explores what the sisters learn from each other and the support they can offer.
It’s incredibly endearing to see Bettina in such desperate need of her big sister’s advice, and equally touching to see Asha call upon the younger sister when the going gets tough. All of this supports the other major theme of the play, two South Asian female-identifying characters trying to make sense of a world in which they feel they don’t fit in.
Somehow, Two Billion Beats manages to lay bare a wealth of injustice without explicitly calling it out. Director Nimmo Ismail has succeeded in creating this very welcoming production, in which Asha frequently addresses the audience, and it’s in these moments that the real thoughts and feelings of Asha come to the surface. When Asha talks about fighting against injustice, she bounces around a stage lit like a boxing rink, creating a palpable sense of anticipation in the audience.
Between the references to Sylvia Pankhurst and B R Ambedkar, and an essay about Gandhi, history is blended with modern day, and the sense of needing to find justice at any cost very much comes to the fore.
The chemistry between Safiyya Ingar and Anoushka Chadha is incredible, their relationship as sisters is instantly believable, and more importantly, likeable. Safiyya Ingar has the tougher of the two roles, working hard to engage the audience in these moments of breaking the fourth wall.
This further development of Two Billion Beats into a full length production is a great example of how the enforced foray into digital theatre has given us enriched pieces of live theatre. Sonali Bhattacharyya has struck gold with this incredibly important play.
Two Billion Beats is at The Orange Tree Theatre until 5th March 2022.
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