I saw 10 Nights by Shahid Iqbal Khan and directed by Kash Arshad (a Graeae and Tamasha co-production) at the Bush Theatre this week .
I am so used to Graeae producing accessible, challenging, inspiring and often experimental or pioneering work, I have become slightly blasé at rolling up to one of their productions or co-productions just expecting innovation and excellence. Even though I only have a small inkling as to the devastatingly huge amount of extra work (that mainstream productions would completely wilt under) that goes into creating integrated and accessible performances.
This new work by Shahid Iqbal Khan is excellent on so many levels which I will expand on below. But I suspect the show’s postponement was due to insufficient funding for exploration time of a new work. This has now been so normalised that sometimes actors are expected to turn up to their first day of a TWO WEEK rehearsal period OFF BOOK. (To put this in perspective many European companies get SEVEN weeks rehearsal).
Come on loves we have ALL done it. When we were starting out. When we had no union protection. We are now so desperate to get our shows on and funding is so scarce that we have normalised this practice of having to put out under rehearsed work across the board. Most shows do not settle until the second week but by that time the reviews are in. Sigh.
Back to 10 Nights. We entered the dimly lit small studio. A simple but effective set (design by Khadija Raza) backed by a screen for captioning. (Hats off to whoever created the captioning which was colour coded and in English and Arabic).
Yasser (played with total conviction by Zaqi Ismaili – who also portrays most of the other characters ) is going through his first Itikaf, the last ten nights of Ramadan when the devoted retreat to the mosque for an extended period of ibadah (worship and contemplation of Allah).
Ismaili is my favourite kind of performer. His character work was some of the best I have seen this year. His “cleaning off” between character jumps was impeccable. He is vocally agile and what a treat to hear such beautiful diction. (I saw a show earlier this week in a 50 seater when I could not hear the actors at all). He is playful but has an underlying anger that he chooses to only allow us to glimpse at. I liked the choices he made. Not always obvious. And he was totally engaging for 80 minutes. Never flagging. That takes nerve and focus. Excellent.
Yaseer is not a devout man and rarely even prays with any intention. During this time of enforced introspection and fasting and for him, a punishing prayer schedule, he is tormented by visions of a long dead friend, Aftab (played by Safyan Iqbal) and various other characters in the mosque, who really should be leaving him alone.
Onstage is also BSL interpreter, Chandrika Gopalakrishnan, an interesting co-narrator and at times commentator who has fun sending up some of Yasser’s sometimes very ripe comments about the other people in the mosque.
There is comedy abounding and Ismail is a fantastic clown and performer and the tiny, I mean tiny space was used well . I should imagine that the Movement Director (Jennifer Kay) had a hand in these aspects. I saw this show week two so I do not agree with many of the comments I have read about the lack of depth or dramatic drive. I enjoyed the use of repetition, the direct enagement with the audience, and Yaseer’s pain, both physical and spiritual that in the end gave some clarity to a clearly troubled man veiling the stain on his soul with drink and wit.
Stage Manager (Gemma Scott) handIed the many technical cues with both discipline and intuition. What a bloody hero! The sound design (by Sarah Sayeed) was flawless and at times witty and when the show ended I had to take a moment. The achievement was astounding.
Khan is a very talented writer. His authentic and differing speech patterns of all the characters are always lively and oh so true. And that is hard to get right. And oh my, absolutely sublime gags.
I hope that this important show has a continuing life and when that happens some of the backstory can be sharpened up with the help of the dramaturg (Oladipo Agboluaje). That apart a resounding triumph for Graeae and Tamasha who have delivered a beautifully executed, inclusive and unconventional show !
On at the Bush Theatre until 13 November.
For more details:
Graeae www.graeae.org
Tamasha www.tamasha.org.uk
The Bush Theatre https://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/
LIL WARREN is a Theatre and Movement Director and writes for Stage, TV, Film and Audio. www.lilwarren.com
Unity Arts London 