Review: Artists at Play’s scintillating ‘नेहा & Neel’ at Latino Theater Company
- Anita W. Harris
- 44 minutes ago
- 4 min read
There are not many plays that center on the Indian American experience, and even fewer that do so with an easy humor that illuminates rather than preaches. The world premiere of “नेहा & Neel” (“Neha & Neel”) at Latino Theater Company avoids the pitfalls of portraying an underrepresented community on stage: flat characters that play to type, didactic monologues and overly symbolic construction. Instead, playwright Ankita Raturi’s nuanced script, brought to life by a stellar three-member cast expertly directed by Lily Tung Crystal, makes “नेहा & Neel” a gorgeous play that is the opposite of preachy — sharply engaging, laugh-out-loud funny and honestly real.
Co-produced with Artists at Play, “नेहा & Neel” focuses on Neha (Pia Shah), an Indian-born mother with a yen for adventure, and her American-born, 17-year-old son Neel (Achintya Pandey), who just wants to scope out potential colleges while not being embarrassed by his mom. The two end up on a partially improvised road trip from California to Washington, D.C., not just for Neel to visit campuses but for Neha to see the blue Hope Diamond, discovered in India and now housed at the Smithsonian.
Often mixing Hindi and English when speaking to Neel, Neha is hyper-vigilant yet warm toward her only child. And Neel is a likeable American teen, though self-conscious that he doesn’t speak Hindi, believing he is lesser in his mother’s eyes for it. He’s also the son of divorced parents, spending summers with his world-traveling Sri Lankan father, much to Neha’s chagrin.
Neha doesn’t understand why Neel wants to go to college in Washington, D.C., so far away from their home in the Bay Area, but nonetheless is taking him to visit campuses there, hoping to sneak in a visit to the diamond—which she sees as a connection to their roots. But when their connecting flight to D.C. gets canceled in Chicago, they decide to drive the rest of the way, not least because the airline is paying for the rental car.
So begins an eventful 12-hour journey that ultimately opens windows in each of them that previously had been shut, despite their generally positive relationship. Along the way, and adding huge comic value, Parvesh Cheena pops up in more than a dozen incidental roles—a taxi driver, people in line at airports, a flight attendant, a motel clerk, a restaurant owner, a gas-station attendant—all of whom happen to be desi, or of South Asian origin.
As Neha and Neel interact with those characters, we come to know that there are a variety of places on the subcontinent “Indians” can be from, speaking a variety of languages, from Hindi to Urdu to Sinhala like Neel’s father. They also arrive in America for a variety of reasons, including the sad story of the clerk who came to help out his aunt and uncle and is now stuck in motel limbo.
But mostly Cheena’s characters add laughs, thanks to his well-timed comedic delivery and a hilarious stage presence that threatens to steal the show each time he appears after lightning-quick costume changes. This is in addition to his hysterical turn as Neel’s grandmother on video chat and his older bro-cousin getting an MBA in D.C.
Shah and Pandey also completely inhabit their roles as Neha and Neel in animated yet natural ways, making the mother-son relationship affectionately believable. Costumes by Elena Flores are well designed to allow Neha to seem mom-like but also modern, and Neel a quintessential teen in hoodie and khakis.
Tung Crystal’s direction (she’s also East West Players’ artistic director) keeps things moving on Leah Ramillano’s effectively scenic design, making us feel the reality of a long road trip on a relatively small stage, with lighting by Szu-Yun Wang that magically infuses the set toward the end.
There’s just a momentary dip in energy after the flight gets canceled, and sound can be a bit fuzzy for the amusingly personal phone navigation voice, and Neel’s name meaning “blue” in Hindi—yes, just like the diamond!—doesn’t necessarily need repeating. Otherwise, “नेहा & Neel” is a beautifully engaging, tightly written and meaningful production.
And though it centers on Indian Americans, including language and cultural references, playwright Raturi clearly designed the play with an eye toward universal themes of a mother caring for her son, his experience of divorce and decisions about college, and the potential for mutual growth through open dialogue—making “नेहा & Neel” an affecting and funny experience for us all.
Artists at Play’s “नेहा & Neel” continues through Nov. 16 at the Latino Theater Company in The Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, with shows Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. For tickets and information, visit LatinoTheaterCo.org. Run time is 90 minutes with no intermission.