Reviews

Warde Street (Park Theatre)

‘Puts stereotypes and media spin under the spotlight’

With a disaster as shocking as the 7/7 London bombings, the spider's web of our social fabric is bound to vibrate for some time afterwards.

That's the springboard for Damien Tracey's crisply written play, which puts stereotypes and media spin under the spotlight and attempts to skewer the assumptions people make both about personal relationships and about Islam. Warde Street arrives at the Park Theatre after opening with a well-received run at the Tristan Bates last year.

It starts with the aftermath of a poisonous dinner party in Samiya's (Avita Jay) flat as she struggles to see why her lover and politician David (writer Tracey stepped in to play the role last minute) can't back her brother in a court case. With paps at the door all too often, he doesn't want to risk his political career. She doesn't want her brother Ashfaq sent to jail.

Flashes of black humour have a hint of The Thick Of It but when a wired, frenetic Ash (Omar Ibrahim) comes calling, the seeds are sown for a tension-fuelled second half.

Rewind the clocks and we see the fatal night in question. Bang-on direction from Jenny Eastop gives Ibrahim the space to melt from Mancunian easiness into desperation in the face of teenage drinking buddy Eddie (Shane Noone), who slowly unravels into boozed up, Islamophobic bile.

Both are excellent, as is Maya Saroya as the spooked wife who stumbles in at the wrong time. The naturalistic set is overhung by bits of the London Underground map, with the bombing-affected lines Victoria and Piccadilly, chopped in jagged shards like a twisted Olympics logo.

London might have healed those cracks but the social and political aftershock may be buzzing for a while – and by the time Warde Street ends, so will you.

Warde Street continues until 26 October 2014