Planet Omar at Leeds Playhouse and on tour – review

Inspired by the lack of representation she saw in her childhood reading, Zanib Mian wrote Planet Omar to provide what she had missed: a character whose story reflected her culture, not just the kinds of behaviours that were universal to all children.

Making the leap from page to stage in Asif Khan’s adaptation, we first meet Omar, an eight-year-old British-Pakistani Muslim boy (played by an adult, Justin Kendal-Sadiq), as he and his family move from Whitechapel to Harrow. His Mum (Aizah Khan), a scientist, wears a hijab to work but not at home, and his Dad (Umar Butt, excellent), also a scientist, wears a beard to copy Mohammed – Omar has never seen what he looks like without one. His teen sister (Emaan Durrani) knows 28 surahs of the Qur’an by heart, and then there’s his toddler brother (Izzy Coward), who leaves everything sticky and doesn’t know he should be quiet at the mosque.

The thought of starting a new school is giving Omar nightmares, and his worries persist during the day: what if no one wants to be his friend or his teacher turns out to be an alien? His fears are not entirely unfounded. On his first day, he finds a friend in Charlie (Coward again), but becomes the target of school bully Daniel (Durrani again). An Islamophobic incident adds the fear of mass deportation to his list of worries.

While Mian’s story centres on Muslim characters, it will feel familiar to anyone. Its archetypes – the weird best friend, the bully with a secret soft centre, the curmudgeonly neighbour, and the dual siblings, one older and surly, the other young and distracting – are immediately obvious.

Arguably, a family show like this thrives on that familiarity, and perhaps it shouldn’t matter when director Sameena Hussain has delivered such a big-hearted show that goes out of its way to engage its audience. Mian and Khan’s aim isn’t just to provide greater representation but to educate in tandem, though some of the exposition becomes laboured as the play over-explains itself.

Nikki Charlesworth’s set nails the family focus with a blast of prime colours and a rocket ship straight from a comic book, and their puppetry and costume design give the show an appropriate cartoonishness. Hussain keeps things pacey too, particularly when the ensemble gamely brings Omar’s dreams to life, even if there’s a decent dose of the overearnestness that can accompany adults playing children.

The play’s best moments centre on the family’s relationship with their new neighbour, Mrs Rodgers (Joanna Holden, also excellent). Despite an initial culture clash (at least in Mrs Rodgers’ opinion), her U-turn on her views of Muslims is tender and touching, both in its catalyst and the way she is embraced by, and embraces, the family.

Khan mines the comedy in the fish-out-of-water nature of the elderly neighbour acquainting herself with a way of life previously alien to her, which only adds to the play’s heart. What was once terrifying to her is novel and full of delight. That gets to the crux of the play’s message: with a little empathy, we might find we’re all much better off.