Protest and prevent
Liberation Squares at the North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford from Tuesday, April 30, and Wednesday, May 1
Review by JON LEWIS
IN the last line of Sonali Bhatacharyya’s effervescent new play Liberation Squares for Fifth Word and the Nottingham Playhouse, the introverted teenager Sabi (Asha Hassan), a studious schoolgirl, finally finds her voice and confidence as she proclaims: “If we don’t speak up, who will?”
In the 80- minute drama, ably directed by Milli Bhatia, Sabi, her best friend, beatboxer and poet Ruqaya (Vaneeka Dadhria) and their co-opted political influencer schoolfriend Xara
(Halema Hussain) learn that language broadcast online unedited in the heat of the moment could constitute a ‘pre-crime’ worthy of an arrest.
Bhatacharyya has written a dark comedy and the interplay between the girls fizzes with witty lines. The subject matter is deadly serious: Prevent’s haul may catch sharks but the net drags in harmless fish like Sabi, Ruqaya and Xara.
Xara is something of an agent provocateur. Her bubbly nature, Bristolian accent and photogenic appeal are harnessed by a local organisation for Muslim women, Safe Sisters.
Xara’s regular online vlogging posts make her the perfect ambassador to attract new members like Sabi and Ruqaya. Meetings are held in a repurposed old library, renamed Bibliotek, “with a k”, run by a strict
Bhatacharyya has written a dark comedy and the interplay between the girls fizzes with witty lines. The subject matter is deadly serious: Prevent’s haul may catch sharks but the net drags in harmless fish
idealogue Nadia (played by all the cast).
The turning point in the play happens when Nadia confiscates a mobile phone Xara borrowed from Safe Sisters for a breach of guidelines and Xara flipflops from lover to hater of the group.
Xara makes an online rant on Ruqaya’s mobile phone accusing Safe Sisters of a violation of human rights, misuse of her intellectual property rights, injustice, censorship and repression.
It’s all hyperbole, and comic to the audience, but to Xara, it is not a laughing matter.
She appropriates Donald Trump to paint Safe Sisters as “fake smiles, fake words and fake books” causing Ruqaya to join her with a culture wars rap.
Her pomposity is popped by Ruqaya’s popular analogy referencing The Matrix and its characters Neo and Agent Smith.
However, Xara ramps up her language comparing herself to American civil rights campaigner Rosa Parks and Indian rebellion leader Begum Hazrat Mahal, enough to get Prevent’s interest and causing a new sense of injustice. Recommended.