MONSIEUR IBRAHIM AND THE FLOWERS OF THE QUR'AN. To February 11.

London

MONSIEUR IBRAHIM AND THE FLOWERS OF THE QUR’AN
by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt translated by Patricia Benecke and Patrick Driver

Bush Theatre To 11 February 2006
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 3pm
Runs 1hr 10min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7610 4224
www.bushtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 January

Both script and beautifully-judged performances keep this gently hopeful drama clear of schmaltz.
Anyone measuring drama by the minute or the magnificence will find this disappointing; a brief 2-hander set in front of stacking shelves containing mainly empty tins. But those interested in a gently-told tale of friendship and able to distinguish the warm-hearted from the sentimental are likely to enjoy Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s story of a lonely boy and a cheerful old soul in a 1960s Paris suburb.

Young teenager Moses drifts along, edging towards crime, in a single-parent family. Mother left years ago and his lawyer father’s unsympathetically judgmental, driving Moses to the kind old man who keeps the corner-shop, the only non-Jew in the street. Taking the lad under his wing, Ibrahim enters the boy’s affections through his wise understanding and gives him a positive approach to life, based simply on smiling.

Later, the boy virtually adopts him. They ride off into a sunset both tragic and hopeful, for Ibrahim is someone for whom tragedy does not exist. As a picture of individuals avoiding their races’ mutual hate and as a picture of wise experience unselfishly guiding a young mind, Schmitt’s play occupies a cosy part of the rosy territory of American 2-handers such as Driving Miss Daisy or Frankie and Johnny.

They’re popular, if not cutting-edge plays (more toothless than blunt-teethed some would say). Their popularity’s based on audience hopes for a positive outcome and interest in a realistically-built relationship. There’s skill in developing that incrementally, and Schmitt avoids over-obvious manipulation of mood and incident. Here’s a strong portrait of a discontented young man finding new spaces within himself – represented in the concentration of the Dervish dance, a circular motion that opens the show as the harsh demands of Moses’ father are heard offstage, though only given its context much later.

In Moses’ development, and in Ibrahim’s resignation, the human life-cycle’s encompassed, while the old man’s wily side keeps him from plaster sainthood. Patricia Benecke’s well-paced production is finely performed by Ryan Sampson with adolescent mood changes and the verbal equivalent of wide-eyed surprise, plus Nadim Sawalha with a calm, smiling face ready for whatever the world will bring today.

Moses: Ryan Sampson
Monsieur Ibrahim: Nadim Sawalha

Director: Patricia Benecke
Designer: Soutra Gilmour
Lighting: John Harris
Music: Nikola Kodjabashia
Assistant director: Patrick Driver

2006-01-26 11:00:05