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Kenmure Street

Òran Mór, Glasgow

Four stars

 

What happened one sunny day in 2021 on Glasgow’s south side when agents of the UK Home Office were thwarted from removing two Sikh men of Indian descent from their homes has become an inspiration for our times. The spontaneous show of mass solidarity that rose up that day has already been documented in Felipe Bustos Sierra’s film, Everybody to Kenmure Street. Playwright Simon Jay has here picked up the baton with a verbatim approach to his new play drawn from the day’s events. The result in this latest lunchtime production for A Play, a Pie and a Pint mixes interviews and anecdotal accounts with a little old school polemic to tell the story. 

 

Key to this is the song by Kenmure Street residents Craig and Rachel Smillie written within days of the event, and which here acts as a folksy refrain as actors Nesha Caplan, Kal Sabir and Betty Valencia replay what happened. This moves from the initial response to the eventual release of the men from the van eight hours later. Inbetween, Nicola McCartney’s production brings to life a series of quick fire memories that capture the sense of the day’s collective action that drove a genuine piece of people power. 

 

What comes through the array of voices that include assorted activists, neighbours and police officers is just how unplanned it all was, and how much nobody knew what may or may not happen next. All it would have taken in the heat of the moment was one rogue element from either side to act, and it would be a very different story being told today. 

 

As it is, for all the gravity of the situation, Sabir does a mean impression of lawyer Aamer Anwar, while Valencia captures then Home Secretary Priti Patel’s ridiculous side. With some of those who took part in the protest in the audience Òran Mór this week prior to transferring to Aberdeen, Jay’s play captures the day’s highs and lows in a work that becomes both a living history lesson and a galvanising force for good.


The Herald, May 16th 2026

 

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