When a young influencer is tasked with saving a once-top London yoga studio, she must win over staff, teachers and clients with her wacky ideas, despite knowing nothing about yoga.
 |
| Actors Amanda Chinyanganya and Donald Sze with director Ryan Ghama Hinds. Photo by Mariana Sobrinho |
From a studio owner who secretly demolishes a Greggs to a topless teacher who doesn't need tantra to make it rain, join Gina as she navigates the ever-changing world of yoga, along with its hypocrisies, heart and handstands. Will Gina be able to master yoga before any jobsworth exposes her AI-generated yoga content? And will she create conflict or community as she attempts to bridge the gap between generations. In a world where yoga is meant to be for everyone, what will come out on top - tradition or TikTok?
This hilarious work-in-progress comedy draws upon Bea and Ben's real-life experiences working at a top London yoga studio. There's rap yoga. There's sheep yoga. There's 'scream and weep' yoga. Faced with a usurper set to sabotage and a rival studio ready to play dirty, will Gina be able to pull everyone together in time, or will it be too late for their beloved yoga studio to nama-stay?
We caught up with director Ryan Graham Hinds to learn more about the show.
What initially drew you to direct NAMASTE!, and what makes the modern wellness/yoga industry such fertile ground for stage comedy?
Stories about realistic people behaving in extreme ways are attractive to me! The Namaste! script made me laugh and I thought it was timely and familiar. In 2026, if you're on socials at all it's hard to escape the intersection of wellness culture and influencer culture; those big personalities and the way they talk are so over-the-top, but it's because they're passionate about what they do. We get to love them and laugh with them at the same time.
How do you approach directing high-concept physical comedy—like rap yoga or 'scream and weep' yoga—without losing the genuine emotional stakes of the studio's survival?
The creative team all agreed that in order to make the comedy fly, we had to ground the yoga aspects in reality. Before we get to the wackiness, we see a class in process: the actors are yogis themselves in their real life, and so they are able to move through challenging, well-executed poses. Once we establish that both we (the people behind Namaste!) and the characters care about getting it right and are extremely capable of doing so, things like rap yoga are even more absurdly funny
The play explores 'Tradition vs. TikTok.' How do you visually and rhythmically highlight that contrast on stage through directing choices, pace, or movement?
The character Gina is a TikTok girlie, whereas most of the other characters are absolutely not. They are less put together, less "on" than Gina and the other influencers are, and that sense of performing and speaking to your followers vs being more grounded and less interested in what others think certainly carries through the direction, the design, and the writing!
Gina enters the scene as a clueless influencer with outlandish ideas. As a director, how do you keep her character grounded and endearing rather than just a caricature?
It comes down to casting. Amanda Chinyanganya plays Gina, and she's just so naturally funny and engaging. When she's onstage, you think "I know exactly who that girl is in real life!" Amanda is a Northener, and we encouraged her to use her real accent for the character instead of trying to sound like a Londoner and losing her authenticity. Because she's not trying to do over-the-top pratfalls or exaggerated voices, she's able to play the reality of someone who is in over her head to hilarious results.
The script stems from real-life experiences in a top London yoga studio by playwright duo Beatrice Hyde & Ben Everett Riley. How closely did you work with them to adapt those authentic insider details into theatrical comedy?
I met Ben through Andrew Keates' Queer Theatre, and right away hoped we'd collaborate on something one day: he's very funny yet quite grounded, with a strong sense of play. When I met Bea and saw their dynamic together, I was impressed at how generous and open they were. They know how to take a suggestion or defend their ideas in thoughtful ways. They are insiders to this specific world in ways that I'm not: I'm not from London, I'm not an active yoga practitioner, but they welcomed my perspective and ideas. I was taught by my mentor Chita Rivera that as artists, we are all at the service of the authors. It's my job to serve Bea and Ben's work and centre their vision and knowledge before adding my own little flourishes, and I've been grateful that the first play I've directed in London had such collaborators at its heart.
Since NAMASTE! is running as a work-in-progress piece, how does that development status influence your rehearsals and direct audience interaction during the run?
In rehearsal, we are saying yes to every creative impulse and refining them, and yet it still feels like we will create the play together with the audience. I believe that audiences are like a creative partner: they will tell us what's funny or not, what characters need more or less attention, and where different choices need to be made.
AI-generated content and viral trend culture move incredibly fast. How are you integrating elements like AI yoga or social media feeds into the production design and stage movement?
With apologies to Grace Jones, it feels like we are all Slave to the Algorithm! Phones, feeds, and screens are an omnipresent reality for all of us right now, so of course the art we make needs to respond to that digital presence. Gina's ideas for revitalizing the studio are based on content, and so we will see that content being planned, created, and streamed before our eyes. Importantly, we also see how people react to it!
As a director, how do you approach AI and the use of it within the creative arts?
To be honest, I don't approach it. I think it's fundamentally incompatible with the very idea of creativity; while it may be useful to help execute an idea, the creative spark that theatre is based on needs human hearts, brains, eyes, and souls. It can be useful in some fields (with plenty of human oversight), but as Gina discovers in the play when she tries to AI her way through a situation that crashes and burns spectacularly, she should have put the work in herself.
With sabotaging usurpers, dirty-playing rival studios, and an eccentric staff, how have you built the ensemble dynamics to make the studio feel like a real workplace community?
The cast has been golden from day one, supporting each other. It's an ensemble piece, and everyone has an opportunity to display their strengths and shine. Bea and Ben have smartly welcomed plenty of feedback from the actors about the characters' dialogue, which has helped give everyone a real sense of teamwork on the piece. Fortunately, all the drama is onstage, not off!
 |
| Actor/Playwright Ben Everett Riley and Actor Alex Turner |
How are you leveraging the intimate stage space at the Golden Goose Theatre to bring the audience directly into the chaos of these yoga classes?
The Golden Goose is a thrust stage and the audience is watching from 3 sides. This gives the work an almost cinematic quality because you have to plan for different angles! The audience becomes a part of the story: whether its Alexi the studio owner giving all of us a lesson in What Yoga Is, Direk the chiseled star teacher with the golden and glistening abs, or the Yogis on the mats, the audience is fully immersed in the story.
What makes NAMASTE! a quintessential show for audiences attending the Lambeth Fringe festival this year?
It's funny! Come and have a laugh with us. Especially if you've ever lit an incense stick, felt like an outsider not quite fitting in, breathed into your downward dog, or had a boss that can't be bothered to get your name right.
What was the first piece of theatre you saw which had a big impact on you?
Cats was a big one for me when I was 6...it made theatre fun and magical, with clear characters existing on a unit set. It also got me into musical theatre and dance at a young age! I still try and get back to that idea of fun and magic when I'm putting together shows, and even when I'm working on plays, I love when there's a movement sequence or choreography. Namaste! has a bit of both, and the opening scene of the show definitely has its roots in musical theatre...so thank you, Gillian Lynne, Trevor Nunn, and Andrew Lloyd Webber!
Beyond the laughs and yoga trends, what core takeaway or message do you hope audiences leave with after seeing Gina's journey?
Gina arrives at a place of honesty by the end of the play. She takes a breath and discovers that authenticity serves her better than trying to be something she's not. My hope is that we as a culture remember to slow down, ignore the algorithm and breathe. It worked for Gina and it can work for us!
NAMASTE! runs at The Golden Goose Theatre on 16th and 17th October 2026. For tickets, visit https://www.goldengoosetheatre.co.uk/whatson/lambeth-fringe-namaste
Post a Comment