An enjoyable, often striking, piece of theatre exploring the impact of language.
The Prime Minister has said something on live tv. Quite what he said, we don’t know. All we do know is that the Press Office is freaking out, The Thick of It style, as his words are pervading conversations and behaviours across the United(?) Kingdom. But is that a bad thing as long as the polls are still in his favour?
Word-Play has a lot to say about the impact of language and, for the most part, succeeds in not only helping the audience see its effect but feel it, too—all the while skewering those types of people we know well. The scene set in, “a completely detached home in Highgate,” is particularly well-observed, and made me think of more than one of my friend’s parents (no further comment.)
On the whole, Rabiah Hussain’s writing excels in both exploring and exhibiting the weight, preciousness, harmfulness, and joy of language, all the while jumping from contemporary, naturalistic scenes to spoken-word moments to satirical, sketch-like sections. And… it’s funny. The rhythm mostly works to the show’s advantage and drives the piece forward to its end scene with a fabulously moving turn from Yusra Warsama.
The performers all produce great work, no easy feat given the breadth of styles on offer, with good chemistry. Kosar Ali shines with her emotive moments; Issam Al Ghussain and Sirine Saba impress with their embodied and detailed character work; and Simon Manyonda delights in both his comedic and dramatic performances.
Nimmo Ismail’s directing does a lot with little and the sound and lighting, courtesy of XANA and Jamie Platt, respectively, is minimal yet successful—though the ethereal, encompassing music is perhaps repeated too often with varying effectiveness.
If the show has any issues then they’re probably in its, albeit infrequent, obviousness. There are scenes that beautifully and subtly make a point about, say, language as identity and our emotional attachment to it, or the often-masculine, often-privileged minimising of the power of words, which end with a slightly on-the-nose hammering home of these messages. Other times, a scene might stretch on after the audience has comfortably grasped its point, leading to a morsel of restlessness.
At the end of the day, it’s a dynamic, interesting and energised piece from an exciting writer. There are moments to make you laugh, those to make you think, and those to make you feel—particularly when we come face to face with the lived experiences of diaspora and feelings of otherness. Even with it’s occasional obviousness, it’s a show you leave thinking about the power of what you say and what you mean, which is a good thing.