Theatre review: Speed

I wouldn't entirely put it past producers to try and put a bus that will blow up if it slows below 50 mph on stage, but until someone with more money than sense has that particular fever dream this Speed is something a bit different: Mohamed-Zain Dada's play is set in the basement of a Holiday Inn outside Birmingham, where three dangerous drivers who can't afford any more points on their licences have come for a speed awareness course. But if there's something odd about course leader Abz (Nikesh Patel) it goes a bit beyond his jittery enthusiasm. And if the participants feel like they've been racially profiled when they look around, they wouldn't be entirely wrong either: In a session the DVLA would probably have some notes about, Abz is actually piloting his own scheme aimed at dealing with anger issues among South Asian drivers.

So after a quick quiz on traffic signs and road safety, Abz' questions start to get a bit more philosophical and personal, trying to get the drivers to delve into exactly what they were feeling when they had the aggressive altercations that brought them to this room in the first place.

Dada's comedy drama leans heavily on the comedy, with a nicely diverse trio: Faiza (Shazia Nicholls) is a self-styled girl boss who, if everything she says is to be believed, runs a small empire of startups and turned down Deborah Meaden's offer on Dragons' Den. Samir (Arian Nik) presents himself as a cocky boy-racer, who absolutely isn't flirting with Harleen. Perhaps the most relatable member of the group, Harleen (Sabrina Sandhu) is a nurse who lashed out at a parking officer after a particularly stressful shift, and spends much of the session holding back and observing.

The dialogue is very funny, and Nik in particular is great at mining every little moment of comedy, but I also liked the tinge of absurd comedy when things start to get a bit more surreal and violent: The lovely irony of a character being gagged with a stress relief ball, or attacked with a "Keep Calm and Carry On" mug. On the other hand Jessica Hung Han Yun's flickering lighting and XANA's unpredictable sound design add an edge of tension even under the comic moments. (At least if anyone gets too stressed out, Tomás Palmer's set has a calming goldfish tank built into it.)

Milli Bhatia's production nicely balances out the comedy and tension as well as the more serious drama underpinning the play, which touches on the discrimination and assumptions that underpin why Asian drivers might be disproportionately represented in road rage incidents, but doesn't offer any easy answers: Ultimately Abz' pilot scheme might have the appearance of trying to help the wider community, but in reality it's a doomed attempt to resolve his own personal issues. Its characters might veer dangerously around the road, but Speed hits all its comic and dramatic targets.

Speed by Mohamed-Zain Dada is booking until the 17th of May at the Bush Theatre's Holloway.

Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Richard Lakos.