TESTING THE ECHO. To 10 May.

Tour.

TESTING THE ECHO
by David Edgar.

Out of Joint Tour to 10 May 2008.
Runs 1hr 50min No interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 February at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry.

Examining the United Kingdom’s varied Citizenship.
Intriguing to see David Edgar’s new play, on the Warwick Arts Centre leg of its tour, in the week Ronald Harwood’s An English Tragedy opens in Watford. Harwood looks back to the post-war years and an England that largely was, and entirely saw itself as, mono-cultural. There was ‘us’ and there were foreigners outside. Leap forward to today and Edgar’s scenes switch with electric rapidity between various micro-cultures within modern England.

The play opens by dealing with the hardline Islam issue, as one of the community’s voluntarily imprisoned for a cold-turkey drugs detox (by no means a one-religion concern).

But the main focus is Emma’s English language class, though there are family scenes and the male canteen-culture having a laugh at Chong’s attempts to swot for the Citizenship test. ‘Citizenship’ questions from across continents are paraded, and a disrupted mayoral Citizenship ceremony frames much of the action, with Citizenship blog extracts backing moments of the action.

There’s complexity in Edgar’s situations. Gaining British nationality can be empowering. Chong’s workmates end up celebrating his success: he’s one of them as well as, now, ‘one of us’.

There's a challenge to the established. To those of us who’d be clueless over questions in the Citizenship test. And those in assured authority, with their memories of sixties radicalism. Plus younger teacher Emma, who finds herself facing an Oleanna-style allegation, with religious expectations, not gender, leading to disciplinary procedures, as the establishment expresses its support.

Performed with economical acuity, Matthew Dunster’s production whizzes along from its snap start. It’s hard to keep alert to all the story fragments as the cast double with few set or costume clues amid a fast underlying pulse. When chairs are knocked over, it’s not the realistic trashing of the classroom, but a sign of general turbulence in a varied society with a broadened range of personal aspirations.

It hardly matters; individuals have never been Edgar’s central interest. But no playwright more clearly explores the multifarious currents running within society, while never dwindling into an animated newspaper feature. Testing the Echo resounds with this quality in addressing Britain today.

Emma/Bernie: Teresa Banham.
Tetyana/Pauline/Halima: Kirsty Bushell.
Mahmood/Ian/Dragoslav: Sushil Chudasama.
Muna/Jasminka: Farzana Dua Elahe.
Aziz/Chong/Toby/Samir: Ian Dunn.
Martin/Mayor/Ranjit/Derek: Robert Gwilym.
Jamal/Joshua/Baba: Syrus Lowe.
Assistant/Chloe/Nasim: Sirine Saba.

Director: Matthew Dunster.
Designer: Paul Wills.
Lighting: Philip Gladwell.
Sound: Ian Dickinson.
Projections: Thomas Gray.
Dialect coach: Sally Hague.
Assistant director: Naomi Jones.

2008-02-25 16:33:14