Vitamin D ★★ Soho Theatre | September 3 - 21, 2024


Larki has gotten a divorce which means that she is viewed by members of her Pakistani community as having failed. As a result she has moved home and is now trying to come to terms with both her own sense of 'inadequacy' and the patronising attitude of family and friends. She is groping towards a sense of self that is not defined by her community, and she is seeking to express her authentic and individual reality in her poetry. Saher Shah's sitcom exploration of Larki's experience is presented through a series of encounters with female family and friends who are embodiments of various stereotypes of the community: the shallowly acquisitive friend, the prying, judgemental aunty, the brazen rebel and the culturally insensitive colleague. Shah squeezes lots of broad humour from these caricatures, and intersperses those moments with Larki's poetic longings to be herself. However, it is only near the conclusion of the piece that we get a sense of how Larki has ended her marriage because of the mental abuse she endured as a result of the narrow role of wife that was being forced upon her by her in-laws. At this moment, we also get a brief sense that her mother might have also suffered similar feelings of entrapment. It is a moment of genuineness in a work which has ironically been deriving its humour from pigeonholing people, and exploiting caricatures of femininity. There is a serious and interesting subject here, but Shah, like Larki, has not really come to terms with it. While Vitamin D might provide some light laughter, it proves to be a placebo – one of those supplements that doesn't really address the condition that has been identified.

Rated: ★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Charles Flint

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