Autobiographical play explores what it is like to be brown, Indian and Muslim in Britain where the power structures, whether political or sporting, are predominantly white

Duck

at the Corn Exchange

on Wednesday, April 30

and the Old Fire Station

on Saturday, May 3

Review by JON LEWIS

THE English summer of 2005 is memorable for an Ashes victory over Australia and the horrors of the 7/7 bombings in London by murderers espousing a radical form of Islam. These historical events underpin maatin’s autobiographical 2022 play Duck, revived by the original director Immy Wyatt Corner for a tour by house theatre that played at the Corn Exchange Newbury and the Old Fire Station, Oxford.

Ismail (Qasim Mahmood), just 15, is a cricket-mad public schoolboy who lives within viewing distance of the main stand of Lords Cricket Ground in London. His family comes from India, and his grandmother does not speak English.

Ismail, nicknamed Smiley by his friends and Smelly by his enemies, has been elevated to the school’s first eleven where the new coach, a posh teacher called Eagles, is a former cricket hero who studied at the school.

Over the course of an hour, the audience follows Ismail’s attempts to play his way into the team and overcome the ducks he keeps getting in his games.

maatin in Duck is exploring, through his own experiences, what it is like to be brown, Indian and Muslim in Britain where the power structures, whether political or sporting, are predominantly white.

Cricket clothing is mostly white.

Ismail is brought up with the Indianness of home where his Tendulkar-worshipping dad supports India in the cricket, thereby failing Norman Tebbit’s citizen test for immigrants in the country.

The entrenched Englishness Ismail aspires to is signified by the constant voiceovers in Ismail’s head of the Test Match radio commentary team.

While the intentions of the playwright are serious and important, the style of the solo show is often comic and accessible.

Drawings of locations like a cricket pavilion or the lake in St James’ Park are projected onto the back wall as is the dialogue from the play, written in straightforward handwriting.

Sound effects, especially the quacking of ducks, highlight the try, try and try again spirit that both Ismail, and immigrant families generally, need to follow to succeed in English life. Mahmood is an engaging, young actor, bringing the many characters to life.

A successful revival.