by Amardeep Sohi
Freelance Arts Journalist

Inspired by the true story of a worker who was fired for masturbating whilst on duty, writer Mina Maisuria’s comic take on life at a petrol station played to audiences in East London recently.

Girish, or ‘Gary’ as he prefers to be known, is the politically incorrect cockney manager who is at times outright racist.

He supervises Krishnan, the overworked immigrant who succumbs to his sexual needs on duty and Feroza, the gobby northern girl who stands up to her indignant boss.

Over a 48 hour period we see how the petrol station is a hub for conflict and personal gripes.

Maisuria didn’t set out to make her play political, but it inevitably is. Titled ‘Commercial Road’, it brings together first generation immigrants, British born Asians and new wave immigrants.

In doing so, she draws out the many issues that arise from within the Asian community. Girish refers to Krishan as one of the “freshie boys.” His son, Sonny blames the degradation of the area on the new wave of immigrants, whilst Krishnan professes he “came on a plane” in an attempt to rid himself of the title FOB (fresh off boat).

Maisuria adds layers to the asian community whilst connecting them on a human level, making the play a commendable step towards quashing stereotypes. One of the more poignant scenes in the play is when we witness Feroza remove her headscarf and use it to clean up her fellow worker’s blood following an altercation with Sonny.

Although the play raises numerous political issues, it is essentially a light-hearted comedy and it’s a sound debut for the initiative.

With cultural diversity on stage continuing to be a hot topic, in 2008 the newly created Angle Theatre launched an initiative to provide a platform for playwrights from the East London area. The initiative was inspired by a research that revealed writers from specific communities still felt that there was a lack of representation on stage.

The company received 70 multi-lingual submissions in response to their campaign and Mina Maisuria was picked to develop her play in full.

If the theatre continues to deliver similar works in the future, it could come to be recognised as an exciting and innovative company. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for their next production.

Mina Maisuria is currently completing an MA in Playwriting at Goldsmiths college. By day she is a school’s consultant in East London.

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Commercial Road ran at The Hackney Empire Studio for two weeks, from 3rd June to 20th Jun 2009.
It was produced by Angle Theatre in association with The Hackney Empire.
Cast: Kal Aise, Rina Mahoney, Alton Letto, Ashley Kumar, Ravi Aujla