Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
4 stars
There's lads anthems aplenty played throughout Ishy Din's, in which
four working class northern English wide-boys reunite over a pool table
in their local on the anniversary of the first of their gang to die, by
his own hand or otherwise. Billy's been down south, Kamy's trying too
hard to be one of the boys, Shaf is talking big and hustling hard, and
Mo is on the way up. Over the course of the night, old scores simmer
under the surface of an overload of drink-fuelled testosterone that
eventually spills over.
So far so in-yer-face, you might think in first time writer Din's
savage little microcosm of back-street culture in close-up. The
difference here is that the track-suited, smart but casual young men in
question are British Muslims of Asian descent, and that the near-silent
bar-man is white. The difference again is that none of this is an
issue, but is merely incidental to the quartet's collective plight, not
just to get on, but to get out, be it through a tequila haze, a big bag
of money or worse.
Atmosphere is everything in Iqbal Khan's spit and sawdust production
for Tamasha in association with Oldham Coliseum Theatre and The Bush,
played out on Ciaran Bagnall's authentic-looking snooker hall set. The
performances are relentless, with Din's potty-mouthed dialogue
ricocheting between the quartet with pummeling volleys if scrappy
spleen. As the quartet's sparring grows increasingly intense, on one
level this all looks deeply old-fashioned. Yet, as it exposes the more
hidden corners of multi-cultural Britain, Snookered becomes an
unflinching impressionistic portrait of a community where old and new
loyalties are as messed up as anywhere else.
The Herald, February 20th 2012
ends
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