THE PROPHET
Gate Theatre, London W11
Opened 20 June, 2012
***

I was in the minority in being underwhelmed by Hassan Abdulrazzak’s first play Baghdad Wedding five years ago; I am not much more enthused by his latest offering. At a moment when the Egyptian revolution seems once more balanced upon a knife-edge, with (I declare an interest) mutual friends of mine and director Christopher Haydon’s hourly tweeting updates from Cairo on a myriad civil, political and military upsets, you would expect a play set during the initial revolt of January 2011 to carry an air of urgent topicality. This simply doesn’t.
    
Nearly 20 Egyptians were interviewed in researching the play, but instead of taking the verbatim route Abdulrazzak has written a more conventional drama. Layla works for Vodafone Egypt, which is about to turn its network off at government request to hinder communications between protesters; her husband Hisham is a former dissident journalist-turned novelist due to meet a literary agent who is dangling before him the prospect of a breakthrough into the English-reading world. We see versions of each one’s day, as Layla joins the chaotic street protests and Hisham… let’s just say he also has an eventful time of it.
    
But when I say this is a conventional drama, I mean that there are a plethora of conventions on show here: from domestic strains and extra-marital temptations on both sides right through to a philosophical torturer who uses explanations of his own approach to disorient and pressure his victim, there is little to make this story demand a recognition of its individuality like the Cairo protesters of whom Layla speaks. Paradoxically, these accounts of the demonstrations are the most dramatic scenes of all, as actress Sasha Behar stands alone on stage recounting Layla’s experiences of tear-gassing, bullets and popular solidarity, against a video backdrop of footage from those “days of rage”. Abdulrazzak and Haydon clearly wanted to get away from one-note testimony theatre, but apart from that one note the tune they have composed as playwright and director isn’t a terribly appealing one.

Written for the Financial Times.

Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.

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