Marriage Material
In our shops we will be Kings of England. And we will make this place our place.
The Bains’ corner shop in Wolverhampton has been at the centre of the family for three generations.
Against the backdrop of a changing 20th century, Mrs Bains is balancing running the business, caring for her ailing husband and the demands of her two headstrong daughters, who each have their eye on a different kind of future.
Fast forward to the present day, a family tragedy pulls Arjan Bains back from a life in London. The shop represents everything he was trying to escape, but with his mother insisting it remain open, how long can he stay away?
This edition of Marriage Material, adapted from the critically acclaimed novel by Sathnam Sanghera, was published to coincide with the co-production at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Birmingham Rep in May-July 2025.
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti writes for stage, screen and radio.
Her first play Behsharam broke box office records at Soho/Birmingham Rep. Her second play Behzti was sensationally closed after protests and won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. It went on to do sell-out tours in France and Belgium. Other credits include Scenes from Lost Mothers, Clean Break; A Kind of People, Royal Court Downstairs; Khandan, Royal Court Upstairs/Birmingham Rep; Behud, Soho/Coventry Belgrade; Silence, Donmar Warehouse; 846, Stratford East; Elephant, Birmingham Rep; Dishoom, Rifco/Watford Palace Theatre; Fourteen, Watford Palace Theatre; the feature film Everywhere And Nowhere; DCI Stone, Radio 4; Londonee, Rich Mix; Dead Meat, Channel 4; The Archers, Radio 4; EastEnders, BBC and An Enemy Of The People, BBC World Service.
Her plays are published by Methuen.
‘This is the Royal Court at its best.’
Michael Billington, The Guardian, on A Kind of People