Representation and its discontents lay at the heart of Mohamed-Zain Dada’s energised debut play, Blue Mist. It was set in a shisha lounge populated by three British Pakistani bros, though its serious themes came under cover of larkiness. That play, nominated for an Olivier award, showcased Dada’s potential.
This follow-up, directed by Milli Bhatia, cements Dada as an audacious new talent. Misrepresentation and anger against racial stereotyping lies at its heart of it, although you would not know it from its deceptively light setup.
Three British Asian people have been summoned to a basement of a Holiday Inn hotel for a speed awareness course. They are repeat offenders and submit to it for fear of losing their driving licence.
Faiza (Shazia Nicholls) is a smugly self-proclaimed hot-shot CEO, Harleen (Sabrina Sandhu) is a put-upon nurse who oozes attitude, and Samir (Arian Nik) is a boy-racer from Yorkshire – and the clown of this classroom.
The session begins in predictable fashion, with a road theory test, a clipboard and a clutch of anti road-rage acronyms. But it turns into a kind of anger-management cum therapy session when their course facilitator, Abz (Nikesh Patel), starts talking about radical listening and encountering the unknown self, gradually needling each of them until they rise to the bait.
The drama begins in the bouncy style of a Friday night TV sitcom, with broad characters and crowd-pleasing jokes about Dragons’ Den. But it revs into a sparky genre bender, twisting from comedy to ghost story to absurdist crime caper. The white-collar realism of Tomás Palmer’s set design (fish tank, drinks machine) morphs into PTSD hallucination and switches back in seconds. It risks schlockiness and confusion with even a small mis-step, but it is too nimble for that.
The comic element never vanishes, and brings with it layered laughs (only Punjabi/Urdu speakers will get the rude double meaning of RUNDI, the acronym Abz gives this speeding course). But it grows spooky and snarls with upset as the group discover truths about the ever more agitated Abz, who Samir likens to “Bin Laden running an anti-terror course”.
These provoked characters raise provocative issues: there is anger against bigotry and big unbeatable structures, and questions over whether to acquiesce, as Abz advocates, or rage against them whatever the cost.
Just as in Blue Mist, Dada delivers these complex ideas with a light touch so that there is no jarring didacticism. Of course, it is about so much more than speeding and road rage. Blasting through at 90 minutes, it maintains it’s smile for a long time but ends with bared teeth.
AtBush theatre, London, until 17 May