The Buddha of Suburbia

A director who truly feels at the top of her game right now, Emma Rice’s adaptation of Hanif Kureishi's classic semi-autobiographical novel about a young Asian man’s outrageous coming-of-age in ’70s suburban London scored ecstatic notices when it premiered in Stratford-upon-Avon recently in a co-production between the RSC and her Wise Children company. Now it's heading our way, the first RSC show to transfer to the Barbican since the pandemic. The casting remains largely as Stratford, with Dee Ahluwalia leading the cast as Kureishi proxy Karim.