Theatre review: Statues

Azan Ahmed's Statues, which he also performs in, starts with his character Yusuf entering the flat he grew up in, that he hasn't spent much time in as an adult: His mother moved to Pakistan after his parents divorced, and his father Mustafa, who lived there alone, was an emotionally distant man whom his son remembers as barely even speaking. But as he clears out the flat after his father's death, Yusuf discovers some tapes left behind. After the necessary comedy sequence about anyone younger than Gen X not being able to operate a cassette player, he discovers that when he was younger Mustafa had been a rapper, with witty lyrics covering both his love life and experiences as a British Muslim, and some very catchy tunes (composed by Holly Khan.)

He and his friend Omar (Jonny Khan,) "the brown Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince," had ambitions to turn professional, and recorded these demo tapes to send to a dubious contact at a record label; but at some point Mustafa's eloquence turned into silence.

Having to clear out the flat, deal with his grief and the new revelations about his father, all comes at the same time that teacher Yusuf starts a new job as Head of English at his old school, and it leads to some bad missteps at work. Most seriously, his attempts at supporting Khalil, a 17-year-old Muslim pupil whose big mouth he worries will get him into trouble, backfire badly.

Although Khan joins him to play Omar and Khalil, most of the hour and a quarter is played out like a monologue (nodded at when he teaches his class about soliloquies,) with Ahmed as Yusuf, Mustafa and a collection of aunties with a rather brisk, blunt approach to helping their nephew deal with grief. Ultimately the connection Yusuf seeks with his father will come through their love of wordplay, which they both express in their very different ways, and while Statues deals with big subjects both personal and political, Ahmed's script is often as witty as the lyrics (Yusuf does not enjoy the dramatic irony of having to teach Hamlet after receiving an unexpected message in his dead father's voice.)

On a wider scale the play deals with British Muslims having to find a voice that expresses them without using language that will be wilfully misinterpreted (the headmaster at Yusuf's school is paranoid about pupils becoming radicalised.) Mustafa eventually silenced himself, Yusuf became expert at not rocking the boat, and ultimately the hope is that Khalil might be the one to speak out without being shut down for it. It doesn't always feel like the play will tie up all its threads but Esme Allman's production helps make for a snappy, melancholy but hopeful hour and a quarter with some surprisingly catchy musical breaks.

Statues by Azan Ahmed is booking until the 9th of November at the Bush Theatre's Studio.

Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Harry Elletson.