[LifeStyle] ‘Wildly original piece’: HINDU TIMES – Edinburgh Lyceum / Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

[S9OUL.]

Jaimini Jethwa’s script can hardly be faulted for freshness – the Hindu deities Vishnu and Brahma (or their Dundonian wide-boy avatars Vince and Barry) are in search of the goddess Lakshmi, who has also gone undercover deep on Tayside.

With the trio fetching up in a badly-stocked Spar after hours, the prospect of the deities transformed into Dundonian minks and widos, indulging in the ‘banter’ that the (surely Oasis-influenced) title hints at – and all the effing and blinding that entails – does take some getting used to. Undoubtedly there will be some who affect to be offended by it, but they will almost certainly not bother to listen to it first.

The end result is actually a sweetly philosophical piece in many ways, with ruminations on the nature of love and self hidden among the whities and minters. The dialogue does admittedly tend towards the ripe, but the local references never obscure the story.

There is an almost recklessly bold ambition to Jethwa’s script, whether it is in the attempt to convey the divine in earthly terms or the conviction that Dundee is the best place to do that. If the home of the peh can be heavenly, of course, then pretty much anywhere can be, and it very nearly succeeds.

The excellent Rehanna MacDonald gives Lakshmi tremendous energy, with Adam McNamara (Vince) and Daniel Portman (Barry) combining the earthy and high-flown with real skill.