Camdenwalla review – one long night of fear and derision in 90s London | Theater

This address was the headquarters of the Camden Monitoring Project, a volunteer organization set up to provide safe transportation home to South Asian restaurant workers during racist attacks. Produced after four years of research by a local Bengali group, actor Jonny Khan’s first play has turned the title of the story into a two-hander, set in one evening in 1994.

Muhammad (Bhasker Patel) is a Bengali from London who spends his nights coordinating a mission to save a few people. He and his mature teenage granddaughter Alima (Nusrath Tapadar) lock themselves in his dingy office when the phone won’t stop ringing. The killing of a white girl has caused a lot of scorn and derision. Panicked callers are pleading for help on Muhammad’s phone, knowing the police will keep an eye on them.

But despite the fact that this story is very important, and the importance of this place, the game is not without problems. Its preparation brings to mind a gut-wrenching film The voice of Hind Rajabhow the Palestinian Red Crescent’s mobile operators are increasingly trying to provide a safe route in impossible conditions. However, in Khan’s play, the problems of the people outside the stage are placed under the relationship between Muhammad and Alima, and he tries to make them funny.

Their arguments about which radio station to listen to, or how much sugar to add to a cup of tea, reveal a closeness that takes on more meaning as the story unfolds. But this also interferes with the stories told on the streets, which Tapadar distorts the character to deliver in Bengali. Similarly, Muhammad’s rejected requests for money require more than a brief comment.

However, Patel and Tapadar look at the situation with wisdom. And directed by Khan himself, the fear is ignited with the help of Sarah Sayeed’s sound design as she carries bullets from outside to their sanctum sanctorum.

It could do with some revisions but after the riots in Belfast, which also saw the purpose of small groups, it seems more important to witness this story, which says as much about today as about the past.