After the double whammy of 25 years since seeing GUYS AND DOLLS at the NT and then finding out that John Normington had died, there was no other place to go tonight but back to my spiritual home on the South Bank.

Owen and I went to see RAFTA RAFTA at the Lyttleton which Owen has been wanting to see for a while. It is written by Ayub Khan-Din based on the earlier play ALL IN GOOD TIME by Bill Naughton, this was also the basis for the 1960s film THE FAMILY WAY starring John and Hayley Mills.

Khan-Din has kept the action in the working class streets of Bolton but has transplanted the story from an English to an Indian family and brought it forward to the present day. This works perfectly as it fits the idea of family being all important in Asian society.

It's the wedding night of Atul (Ronny Jhutti) and Vina (Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi) and they are about to spend it... in Atul's bedroom at his parent's house where they will live until they can afford a house of their own. Atul's father is Eeshwar (Harish Patel), always the noisy boastful centre of attention at any party much to the quiet vexation of his wife Lopa (Meera Syal). Eeshwar has been working to better his family since his arrival from India, back when an Asian face was treated with disdain in Bolton, and he now views Atul as workshy and snobbish for liking to listen to classical music. He wastes no time in rejoicing in beating his son at arm-wrestling in front of Vina, her parents Laxman (Kriss Dosanjh) and Lata (Shaheen Khan) and family friends. When upbraided by Lopa, the father drunkenly invades Atul and Vina's bedroom to apologise and to tell them if they ever want a chat he is only in the room next door "Don't worry, I'm a light sleeper". No wonder the marriage isn't consummated that night!

Things start getting problematic when it remains unconsummated for a whole 6 weeks. The couple start growing apart and Vina unwittingly sets the cat among the pigeons when she tells her mother the secret. Lata wastes no time in telling her husband, Eeshwar and Lopa and they meet to decide how to solve the problem but this also ends in chaos when their own grievances are aired: Lata has always been jealous of Laxman's closeness to Vina and Lopa reminds Eeshwar that he brought his best friend on honeymoon with them. Eeshwar's defence is he couldn't leave his best friend on his own even if the same friend disappeared out of their lives soon afterwards. Atul and Vina's marriage looks over before it has even begun. But life can be very unpredictable....

I must admit I wasn't expecting too much from the production but was soon won over by the sheer warmheartedness of the play - apart from one obvious bad apple, all the protagonists are allowed room to breathe and justify their characters actions. The play was snappily directed by Nicholas Hytner and eye-poppingly designed by Tim Hatley. His standing two-up two-down set also worked by having a scrim descend during scene changes showing a photograph of a row of drab houses through which you could see certain illuminated rooms with the characters within. It was a nice touch and added to the sense that behind even the humblest of front doors all human life is within.

The performances were all fine allowing for some over-emphatic line readings among some of the supporting cast. I particularly enjoyed Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi, Kriss Dosanjh and Shaheen Khan. Funnily enough I thought of John Normington during the play thinking if they had done the original Naughton play he would have been a natural to play the girl's father.

But the show was dominated by the marvellous performances of Harish Patel and Meera Syal.

I must admit at times Patel's line-readings were a bit muffled which upset the rhythm of some jokes but he was a joy to watch and turned in one of the best comic performances I have seen for a while. He has the timing of death and has great magnetism on the stage. There was a great little scene where he forces his son to have a late-night chat to find out what's wrong and both realise they cannot do small talk. The son suggests they talk about India having the Atomic Bomb which the father says he has no interest in. The son says "But you have family in India" to which Patel got the laugh of the evening with "Yes but I don't like any of them!" His huge gift for comedy also made his quieter scenes very effective, his sad recollections of his early years in England, only made bearable by his childhood friend who later vanished when he married Lopa were truly touching.

He was matched stride for stride (literally sometimes) by Meera Syal as Lopa. It's a great role - Marjorie Rhodes stole the film with her wonderful performance - and Syal mined it for all it was worth. She marvellously showed Lopa's abiding love for her husband while at the same time more than adept at whacking him with a cushion for using the same swear word in company. Whether shooting someone down with a killer put-down or quietly despairing of her son's unhappiness, Syal proved what an under-valued actress she is. Surely it's time to knock the KUMARS shtick to touch.

Literally right at the end of the play Patel and Syal showed their brilliance. In the space of three lines of dialogue the whole emphasis of the play shifted and the curtain fell to an awed silence. They were loudly cheered at their curtain call and justifiably so.