When I first heard of the opportunity to stage Behna in our kitchen, I fell in the love with the idea immediately.

On the day of the show, the production team arrived in the afternoon and meticulously transformed my kitchen from quirky paraphernalia to a Punjabi infused shabby chic with snippets of my parents’ 1980′s home!

One of the main attractions for hosting Behna was the unique opportunity it presented to mimic the euphoria of an Indian pre-wedding party in our own home surrounded by close friends and family.  As everyone knows, no wedding ever runs on time and in true desi style we stuck to this. Some of our guests arrived late walking into the lounge the same time as the actors. This made the opening scene even more authentic as the guests already in the lounge couldn’t distinguish between the actors and late arriving guests!

We weren’t expecting the character of mum and masiji (her sister) to spice up the night with some gidda, boliyan, dancing and friendly cheeky banter. Truly a highlight for all of us!

What makes Behna unique is how then actors lured us into a sense of warmth and fun only to lead us to the main arena where the tension is high and everyone wants to discuss the elephant in the room!

Watching the reaction of our friends and family was quite special. Everyone of us could cherry pick some aspect of the play and relate to it. It felt like we were observing everyday drama within our household yet this was more heightened. Our guests reacted with laughter and sadness. There were knowing glances between them: grandparents, future daughter and mother-in-laws, sisters, and friends. If we were the glue that gels this audience, we could place every single person on a jigsaw piece which makes up the Behna storyboard. This for us reinforces how current the issues were, some delicate topics, some funny, some difficult yet all relevant in today’s society and very well portrayed and presented.

The actors were brilliant in how they observed their stage – my kitchen. And how they sensitively embraced aspects of my home into the play. For example when the character of Gurpreet looked up at our son’s paintings whilst talking about his own children. Little personal touches, which were fine tuned to our home were absolute genius, something we will always hold close to our hearts.

It was a beautifully scripted authentic play in the comfort of our own home which not only brought a tear to our eye but a belly-full of laughs.

Angela, Lak & Jannon