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A
Leap in the Dark Group: DooLali Productions |
| Tim Markham | |
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It's 2023, and race riots have broken out again in the northern British town of Burnham. There is strict segregation of the white and Asian communities, and violence is likely to ensue if an ethnic Asian strays beyond the perimeter of her zone. Against this backdrop, Jack saves Anji from an attack by his thug of a brother, and a forbidden romance takes root. If this sounds like a hackneyed take on race relations in Britain, it is because Chapman's play does rest on a number of overly easy clichés. Jack's brother Chris is a drug-dealing nationalist thug operating with a hardwired hatred of Asians and a fervent belief in a Daily Mail world of chaos, crisis and of the vulnerability of a British culture that no-one - least of all Chris - ever knew. Anji's father is traditional and violent, while Anji herself lives in fear of the world around her and inflicts self-punishment for betraying the ways of 'her culture'. Yet for all this, and the BBC News voiceovers, which lend nothing more to the production than a gnawing sense of sixth-form narrative devices, the play is utterly engaging, powerful and moving. The script gains real momentum once introductions are made and clunky characterisations are thrown off. The plot becomes more charged by the minute, moving from theft to rape to riots to flight with both pace and remarkable continuity. But it is the performances of the cast and the strong direction of Christiane Hille that carry the play. Callum Walker as Chris creates and maintains the palpable tension that pervades the show, and even begins to look a little human as things develop. And Sonali Chapman as Anji, who appears as little more than an insecure victim for much of the first half of the play, finally develops into an intriguingly complex character as she seeks to address her own responsibilities and capacities. The conclusion is a little disappointing, but only because the thoroughly riveting crescendo that precedes it creates a thick air of expectancy, a feeling that something has to give. And when it does, the stifling atmosphere of the riots dissipates somewhat too easily. But with its vivid evocation of things spinning out of control towards anarchy, this remains a thoroughly gripping dystopian drama. 1 August to 24
August.
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