MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long
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‘Throwing shade’ on Gandhi
MAYER WAKEFIELD recommends a play which asks who is allowed to be radical and what does radicalisation really mean in a world overflowing with injustice?
POLAR OPPOSITES: Safiyya Ingar and Anoushka Chadha
[Alex Brenner] 
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Two Billion Beats
Orange Tree Theatre
WHEN the only two items in the programme are biographies of BR Ambedkar and Sylvia Pankhurst, you know you are in for a production packed with revolutionary fervour and Two Billion Beats delivers in compassionate, understated fashion.
Asha (Safiyya Ingar) and her younger sister, Bettina (Anoushka Chadha), are polar opposites. While the fiery sixth former Asha is fuelled by ideas and dreaming of studying at SOAS, her sibling is the embodiment of adolescent vulnerability and saving up her lunch money to buy a hamster.
They struggle to connect as the single-minded Asha would rather keep her nose tucked inside the works of Arundhati Roy than placate the needy overtures of her admiring little sister.
Writing her latest essay, Asha has immersed herself in the struggle for Indian liberation and the life of Ambedkar, including his many battles with Gandhi. Ingar brings their 1936 “boxing match” over the issue of caste to life, springing around the stage with jabs and uppercuts abounding.
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