Koli Kari by Ganesh Thava opened at the fringe on Saturday evening.  It’s presented by Pink Banana Theatre and directed by Sungwon Cho.  It’s built around Ravi’s (Thava) attempt to use his mother’s secret Koli Kari (chicken curry) recipe to revitalise his flagging TV cooking show.  The broadcast is invaded by figures from Ravi’s past; girlfriends (more or less), his present (his mother) and a mysterious magical chicken.  At times it’s quite weird and disturbing but too much of the time it turns on the obvious cringeworthy humour in the interaction between a young gay Indian man (from Scarborough natch) and his immigrant mother who is disappointed he hasn’t become a lawyer or a doctor, married a nice Indian girl and produced grandchildren.

The acting is pretty decent (Thava plus Asha Ponnachan as his mother and Anne Saverimuthu as girlfriends and and the chicken) and there are some good lighting and sound effects.  Ultimately though, despite Ravi’s claims, it’s not the best chicken curry you will ever experience.

Koli Kari runs at Tarragon Theatre Mainspace until July 13th.

Photo by Barry McCluskey