My Beautiful Laundrette Archives

My Beautiful Laundrette – Liverpool Playhouse

28Mar

By Jenn McKeanNo Comments

North West

My Beautiful Laundrette – Liverpool Playhouse

Ignorance isn’t a religion, yet. My Beautiful Laundrette is based on the film from Stephen Frears and Hanif Kureishi of the same name. It is set in London during the Thatcher years and tells the story of Omar, a teenage British-Pakistani boy, who wants to transform his Uncle’s run-down laundrette inro the go-to place for locals. He runs into an old school friend, Johnny and convinces him to help with the laundrette and we get to see their coming-of-age story blossom. The film and play focus on topics of fascism, racism amongst other subjects, with an underlying love story. This comedic story is heartwarming, divisive and joyous throughout, almost an emotional rollercoaster, but there are definitely characters you root for and ones that are meant to cause the divisions. Omar is played...

Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Laundrette Takes Centre Stage in Liverpool

Based on Hanif Kureishi's Oscar-nominated screenplay, My Beautiful Laundrette stars Gordon Warnecke, who originally played Omar in the 1985 movie. Featuring original music composed by the Pet Shop Boys, this stage production is directed by Nicole Behan, Co-Artistic Director of Liverpool-based company Paperwork Theatre (Deep Blue at the Everyman). My Beautiful Laundrette is at the Liverpool Playhouse from Tuesday 26th to Saturday 30th March. Set in South London during the Thatcher years, My Beautiful Laundrette was nominated for Best New Play and Best Regional Production at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2020. The play tells the story of young British Pakistani, Omar, who transforms his uncle’s run-down laundrette into a thriving business. Gordon Warnecke, who played Omar in Stephen Fr...

My Beautiful Laundrette – Curve Theatre Leicester

Britain in the 1980’s – a time of division and change and this is the setting for an adaptation and stage revival of Hanif Kureishi’s screenplay from that era. First off, I must say that it hasn’t worn that well and suffers from some shameless stereotypical characterisations that modern audiences would find hard to accept. Having said that, the company under the direction of Nikolai Foster provide a lively and thoughtful rendition of Kureishi’s script and most of the acting is fine throughout. This is a recording of a dress rehearsal for the actual stage show from 2019 and it does show somewhat – the sound quality is poor and the staging does seem a little slapdash, which is a shame because I’m sure the actual performance would’ve been so much better (there is a fuller review in our ...