The Black Album

Synopsis

An Asian kid from Kent goes to college in London and teams up with a sympathetic group of anti-racists. But it’s 1989, the year of the fatwa, and as Shahid begins a hedonistic affair with his lecturer, his radical Muslim friends want to steer him away from the decadence of the West.

Our Review:

20 October 2009

After a run at the National Theatre that was met with largely lukewarm-to-poor reviews, Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album, adapted from his novel of the same name, has gone on tour to seek its fortune elsewhere. Although entertaining, it cannot be denied that the play itself, overwhelmed with the task of examining the explosive trio of faith, politics and censorship, struggles to come alive under Jatinder Verma’s direction.

Jonathan Bonnici as Shahid is likeable as a British Asian student with a fondness for Shelley, but is too sincere to make his extracurricular activities – casual drug-taking and liaisons with his lecturer – seem in any way believable. Near-death convulsions after a wild night on ecstasy pass by in an awkward, melodramatic moment, and he generally fails to inject the power required to lift Shahid from the stage into the audience’s hearts. A frenzied debate in which he condemns book censorship is the only moment when his performance moves from mildly ...

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