Critics
Choice 5 StarsFinally, the real deal. Just when you thought verbatim had taken over modern issue-based plays, a writer achieves the rare balance of contemporary relevance and theatrical craft. Nirjay Mahindru took a series of Guardian articles on Guantanamo, but rather than simply have his characters mimic the sources, he made the necessary imaginative leap and created something special that reflects and enriches our panicked age.
Three British Asians, incarcerated in a generic camp, are tormented by an American soldier and a sexy agent. A loudspeaker provides a generalised voice of the faceless operators that colonise all our minds, from Donald Rumsfeld to the robotic London Underground voice of intoning 'smoking is not permitted'. The Hot Zone is an abstract space somewhere between Guantanamo, Abu Grahib, and King's Cross - a fearful mental space in which 'terrorists are everywhere'.
The brilliance of characterisation lies in the naivety of the detainees, a bunch of sweet boys who got a bit mashed and waylaid on the subcontinent, then suddenly found themselves in purgatory. Much of the humour derives from the dumb Americans' failure to understand Britain, let alone Islam. When Iqbal is challenged with the assertion that Wolverhampton Wanderers are an Al-Qaeda cell, he admits they have been 'looking for a potent strike force for years'; Waris, meanwhile, confesses to being a highly trained employee of Boots in Croydon. It is wonderful to see a British Asian cast (at all, in fact, and in something Bolly-free) engaging with the most pressing concern of their, or indeed any, community right now. As the draconian anti-terror laws gradually thaw, this play asserts the rights of British Asians in a world that increasingly sees that as a contradiction in terms.
BAC
Tue 13th - Sun 25th March 8pm
(Sun 6pm)
Post-show discussions
Thursday March 8 & 15
BAC, Lavender Hill, Battersea SW11 5TN
Tickets: £10 (Conc £6)
Tuesdays Pay what you can
Ticket Office: 020 7223 2223
Book Online: www.bac.org.uk
Directed
by Dominic Hingorani
Designed by
Rachana Jadhav
Lighting by
Jane Makintosh
Sound Simon McCorry
