THE GREAT EXTENSION To 14 November.
London.
THE GREAT EXTENSION
by Cosh Omar.
Theatre Royal Stratford East Gerry Raffles Square E15 1BN To 14 November 2009.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat 14 Nov 3pm.
Audio-described 28 Oct.
BSL Signed 29 Oct.
Runs 2hr 15min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 8534 0310.
www.stratfordeast.com
Review: Tim0othy Ramsden 24 October.
Chaotic, sometimes misfiring but often enough a deft, energetically performed comedy of cultural tensions.
Forty years ago there was a BBC sitcom built around comedian Eric Sykes. Each week the put-upon Sykes would be criticised and condescended to by his very proper neighbour, Mr Brown. In Cosh Omar’s new comedy, neighbour Mr Brown, pushed to a splenetic comic edge by Jack Chissick, is the only White character with anything to say, an outsider in a melting-pot of Turkish, Pakistani and - surprise – Jew.
Though it’s the latter that brings out his Nazi sympathies, Brown sees the rest as terrorists, assuming they’ll multiply rapidly to outnumber real Brits like him. Which, given the increasing numbers each time he reappears, might seem a nightmare come true.
There again, his appearances – heralded, like other arrivals at Hassan’s split-level apartment with ‘Jerusalem’ on the doorbell – are frequent and arbitrary. When Omar wants more bigotry, back comes Brown until an alternative way’s found to dispose of him. By when Ben Bennett’s blithe Asian policeman has taken on the role of ill-motivated returnee.
Technically, The Great Extension could learn a lot about construction and character development. The last half-hour drags, largely plotlessly. There are too many characters; the women, in particular having little to do or say, despite the longest female riff being on women’s rights within Islam.
But, just as the extension to Hassan’s apartment is a clumsy excuse for the greater extension of society, so the play’s faults can be excused. The comic mix contains some good jokes, and some so silly they acquire their own hilarity. And the play opened the night before that BBC ‘Question Time’, making ethnic tensions an urgent subject, and their comic treatment something of a relief.
Brown may be an easy stereotype but what he stands can’t be ignored. Similarly, antagonisms between Muslim traditions, or religious and secular Turks, not to mention women and – given the nearest to preachily privileged status – gays, make this a merry melting-pot of tensions, while repeated tag-lines and the mix of political and personal aspects of, especially, the Khans, down from Leeds to claim their missing daughter, add to the brew in Kerry Michael’s happily chaotic production.
Mr Hassan: Dimitri Andreas.
Abdul Aziz Khan: Faraz Ayub.
Mrs Hassan: Carol Been.
Policeman: Ben Bennett.
Mr Brown: Jack Chissick.
Newsreader: Rebecca Deren.
Hamid Khan: Amerjit Deu.
Handsome Turkish Man: Akin Gazi.
Sanjay: Raj Ghatak.
David: Jacob Krichefski.
Hassan: Cosh Omar.
Aisha Khan: Sharona Sassoon.
Jamillia Khan: Ruby Visaria.
Director: Kerry Michael.
Designer/Costume: Yannis Thavoris.
Lighting: Prema Mehta.
Sound: Theo Holloway, Orbital Sound.
Assistant director: Matthew Blacklock.
2009-10-26 02:31:44