Challenging convention: Writer/performer Aizzah Fatima.
Theatre: The Lowry, Salford
Play: Dirty Pakistani Lingerie
Playwright: Aizzah Fatima
Director: Erica Gould
Review by Carl Palmer
Writer/performer Aizzah Fatima has said that nobody expects Muslim women to be artists, let alone comedians. But you wouldn’t, as she did, give up a job with Google in New York if you had any doubts about your preferred career path. Dirty Pakistani Lingerie, Fatima’s sparkling one-woman comedy show, is ample proof that she made a sound decision.
Set in post 9/11 America, Dirty Pakistani Lingerie delves into the lives of Muslim Pakistani American women, as seen through the eyes of multiple female characters. They are delivered to us from a sparsely decorated stage as a composite: a young dreamer, a 20-year-old visitor to America, a Pakistani American feminist, a teacher/wife/mother in her 50s, a six-year-old girl, a Pakistani mother in her 60s and a 35-year-old Pakistani American professional. Combined, they highlight how their Muslin identity need not be incompatible with being Pakistani American.
As Fatima’s seamless performance demonstrates, a glimpse of Muslim women in all their variety and complexity is at the show’s core. In short, individual sketches, all six characters are transformed into a collage of easy to comprehend Muslim women, whether breaking down stereotypes, talking about stereotypes, or having a laugh at the expense of the stereotypes.
They include Selma, a hijab feminist, who represents what can so easily happen when you fuse your ethnic identity with a new life in America (there were mild gasps of surprise and nervous giggles when she held up some silky lingerie, and talked of her overwhelming desire to put it on).
Fatima is equally brilliant as the 65-year-old mother who devotes an inordinate amount of her time scanning the newspaper’s matrimonial section in search of a prospective partner for her daughter – preferably a doctor.
Fatimas’s great comic timing, and high energy performance, add up to a show where the laughter can be heard all around the auditorium from beginning to end. It doesn’t matter how many times you hear the mother say the same lines over again in an exaggerated Pakistani accent, it’s still funny.
“Hello, salam alaikum, my name is Mrs Shah. I’m calling from New Jersey about your ad in the 02 Times matrimonial section.” And when she asks with a smile: “How much is the boy making?”
What’s striking is the ease with which audience sympathy for each individual character is first captured, then maintained by Fatima. A remarkable feat given the physical and mental dexterity required to do so.
That said, serious issues are not lost, and an important message is made clear: that you can be Muslim and an American at the same time. The wonderful, flowing direction from Erica Gould allows the multiple characters space to breathe without the storytelling ever losing momentum.
Overall, this production is cracking entertainment, showing why it has won awards, and has had sold out performances all over the world.
On this evidence, we should perhaps watch out for anything else written and/or performed by Aizaah Fatima. To repeat what a teenager utters on her way out: “She’s cool.”
*Dirty Pakistani Lingerie is touring the UK until Sunday 10 April 2016. Venues include: loveetiquette.com corohall.co.uk unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk and spotonlancashire.co.uk.