Broken friendship: Omar Ibrahim (Ashfaq) and Shane Noone (Eddie) Photo credit: Chris Gardner for Rare Moustache
Play: Warde Street
Theatre: Park Theatre
Playwright: Damien Tracey
Director: Jenny Eastop
Review by Joy Francis
With newspaper headlines gripped by the international threat posed by ISIS, the Jihadist militant group in Iraq and Syria, Warde Street’s focus on the personal impact of 7/7 is both timely and uncomfortable.
The first act, set in London, sees ambitious politician David (played by the playwright himself Damien Tracey), negotiate his culturally fraught relationship with Asian Muslim girlfriend Samiya or ‘Sam’ (a poised and passionate Avita Jay).
While clearing up the debris after a dinner party with a senior party official Lauren and her husband George, Sam prods David for reassurance that he loves her while expressing her dissatisfaction at being dubbed a “home wrecker” by Lauren to her face and by the press.
David is consumed with rebuilding his political career after his fall from grace for leaving his wife Rebecca for Sam. His attempts to appear sympathetic to Sam’s concerns are undermined by his self regard, impatience and tactlessness. While Sam bemoans being the hidden girlfriend, David makes matters worse by calling her his “mistress”, only to then retract the statement. A position he finds himself in with alarming regularity.
The main point of dissent is over whether David will be a character witness for her brother-in-law Ash (the intriguing and fiery Omar Ibrahim) who is accused of killing his childhood friend Eddie in retaliation for murdering his wife Yasmeenah. David, ever the politician, does a spectacular u-turn from his promise to support Ash. He believes Ash killed Eddie. Not only is Sam is furious with David’s decision (“You’re a pathetic, self centred coward”), it sparks a dramatic and unnerving end to act one.
Ash’s convenience store in Warde Street, Manchester, a few months earlier, is the setting for act two. A drunk and belligerent Eddie (an intense Shane Noone), breaks into Ash’s shop, closed early to celebrate Yasmeenah’s (Maya Saroya) birthday. Ash hasn’t seen Eddie since his wife Fiona’s funeral two years earlier.
The tension between the former friends is palpable. Eddie reminisces over the good old days when Ash could drink (excessively). Ash’s memories aren’t as rosy. He admits that he tried to commit suicide. After that episode, Ash converted to Islam.
Consumed with grief and hate for what he believes Ash has become, Eddie turns into an aggressor. He refuses to accept that his former “party boy” buddy is now a “Koran reading golden boy”. Eddie is convinced Ash must have been converted against his will, and is dogmatic in his belief that “Islam killed Fiona”.
The emotionally and racially charged events that lead to the deaths of Yasmeenah and Eddie are raw, shocking, moving and emotionally exhausting.
Damien Tracey gives the actors a lot to chew over. Packed with intelligent and emotionally charged dialogue, sometimes bordering on the polemical, the one hour 30 minute play tries to thrash out complex issues in a compact production.
Almost Aaron Sorkin-esque in its verbal pacing with rapid fire and carefully crafted dialogue, Warde Street places Islamophobia under a blazing spotlight. Tracey showcases how grief, coupled with media sensationalism and political expediency, can transform a once loving, though dysfunctional, cross cultural friendship into one of misunderstanding and hate.
The actors give it their all, aided by impressive and precise direction from Jenny Eastop. Avita Jay is highly watchable and leaves you wondering why she is stays with self absorbed David. Maya Saroya makes you feel the pain of Yasmeenah’s murder despite her relatively short time on stage. But it is the performances of Omar Ibrahim and Shane Noone which leave you emotionally spent. They convey pain, terror and betrayal with great skill and violent energy.
Tracey points many well trained fingers (at politicians and at the media) while giving the victims of 7/7 a voice. He is coruscating about the hypocrisy of British governments who use terrorist threats to deflect from political problems and intimidate the public to keep them scared.
He also reminds us how short our memories are about the communities which are scapegoated as a result – once Irish people courtesy of the IRA and now Muslims due to Islamic fundamentalists.
Warde Street is provocative, relevant, solidly acted and dramatically potent. A must see play – whether you agree with its sentiments or not.
Warde Street is at Park Theatre until Sunday 26 October 2014.