Review: Vitamin D (Soho Theatre)

Review by Dan Sinclair

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Larki is 29, an office worker by day, a performance poet by night and a recent divorcee. She’s moved back in with her Mama and Baba and life just feels a bit depressing. After a tour in 2023, Saher Shah brings her new play Vitamin D to the Soho Theatre. We open with a bang, a blast of colour and music, mango sweets are handed out and it’s the picture-perfect British-Pakistani household. Tentatively, Larki enters and everything seems to fracture, the life drains out and before we know it it’s just Larki alone in her room. There is something looming over the house and it won’t go away. 

Saher Shah has crafted a script that balances both a charming sitcom and a serious interrogation of social/cultural taboos. Vitamin D highlights the voices and experiences of British South Asian women, and it has the taboo of divorce in its sights. The script is intent on showing the infectious nature of this generational trauma, it affects Larki directly, but its effects spread to her mother, her friends, and her whole circle. A lot of the heavy lifting is done by an explosive monologue at the end, the problems of systemic emotional abuse, patriarchal structures and the fear of scandal are alluded to throughout the play but are finally confronted head-on in an intimate scene between Larki and her Mama. 

Larki, played by writer and performer Saher Shah is joined by her friend - Friend. The friendship between these two is wonderful in its writing and delivery. Director Melina Namdar has done a fine job of creating a relationship that truly makes an audience feel like a fly on the wall. This duo drive the play forward, the closeness between the two allows for Larki to open up about her feelings in this pressure cooker of a comedy. 

The standout performer is undoubtedly Anshula Bain as ‘Friend’, she’s an absolute tour-de-force on the stage. Her performance is almost aggressively naturalistic, there are moments at the start when it feels too intense, but then you realise that this is just her character and that you want her to be your bestie too. Anshula Bain clearly has a bright career as a comic performer ahead of her. The rest of the performances were solid across the play, but I did feel that there were some weaker moments. Some of the actors seemed to be fighting with the sitcom-style dialogue which led to some scenes that felt stunted. To find the stakes funny, you have to believe that these are real people, and occasionally some scenes just didn’t land as well as other hilarious moments.

The play consists of two distinct styles, there’s the sitcom stylings and then there are sequences of performance poetry delivered by Larki. These moments are a chance for the lighting design of Jack Weir to excel, they’re bold, and emotive and paired with the projection design give a necessary shift in tone. I did find myself wanting a bit more from the set design, the use of boxes and a raised bench often left the actors stranded. Many scenes ended up with the actors sitting side by side on these boxes facing outwards, it didn’t quite feel like the playground of a set that the performances and script demanded and this made a few of the earlier scenes feel quite repetitive. 

The message of Vitamin D is one of hope, reminding an audience that no matter what you do, never apologise for putting yourself first to be happy. Whilst at times a bit uneven, it stages a complex social issue with skill, compassion and real care for its central character. And whatever you do, when you’re 20 please just don’t go on a gap year to build a well in India and then make it your whole personality. 

Vitamin D is showing at the Soho Theatre until 21st September.

Tickets from: https://sohotheatre.com/events/vitamin-d/ 

Photos by Charles Flint