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Simon Coombs and Farzana Dua Elahe |
Insights into hijab, but why cover things up?
WHAT FATIMA DID
Hampstead Theatre
ABOUT three years ago, in a secondary school not a million miles from here, a story emerged about teacher taking offence to a pupil wearing the hijab.
At the same school, a few weeks later, another pupil was said to have been sent home for arriving in class clad in a red and white flag.
It was St George’s Day.
Writer Atiha Sen Gupta, in her first full-length script, wades bravely into the quagmire of debate surrounding the rise of the Muslim dress post 9/11.
The relationships between five friends rupture after Fatima returns from summer holidays wear the hijab and renouncing everything associated with her former life, including her boyfriend George (Gethin Anthony). The headscarf, which obscures part of her head and in turn her identity, is an impenetrable barrier for Anthony, cast off into the cold, baffled and resentful.
Fatima’s mother Rukshana (Shobu Kapoor) threatens to kick her out of her home for failing to grasp that the hijab is a symbol of female repression.
Her argument chimed with the frustrations of the protagonists of anti-war or feminist movements of the late 20th century, so despairing at the apathy and “whatever, man” attitude from their kids.
The wise fool Stacey (Bunmi Mejekwu) suggests Fatima wears the hijab simply because she wants to and not out of some bold inverse rebellion.
An excellent cast pitch all sides of a complex debate in a production that, with perfect a picture of the sounds and look of teenage life, screams authenticity.
I burst out laughing at least a dozen times – the comic rudeness of these kids had the audience rocking.
Dramatically, the warring classroom debates served as a clever vehicle for the cast to pass wider social comment on what Fatima did.
But the play, which began with such a bang, felt convoluted and tedious by the end. There are too many voices, too many subplots, too many analogies – far too many problems to resolve.
Gupta has decided to keep Fatima off set at all times – she is literally the elephant in the room – and her reasons for what she “did” are not explained.
Perhaps the writer is pointing out that this is the big unknown.
But it left me thinking that the play posed more questions than it answered and somehow silenced the only voice we really wanted to hear.
Until November 7
020 7722 9301 |
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