Although the themes are serious, the script is often lighthearted and amusing, making it a good option for those aged 16+, finds reviewer Gail Deal.
Yusuf is a 26-year-old Muslim, third-generation British Pakistani, who has just started in the role of Head of English at his old school in North London. His father has just died and the play opens three hours after the funeral. Yusuf is packing up his father's flat. The plot jumps back and forth between present day and 1996, when Yusuf's father Mustafa is an aspiring rapper in London. The play gradually reveals what has happened to Mustafa over the course of his life to make him lose his way.
Yusuf did not have a good relationship with his father. His mother left when Yusuf was 8 and his father became a ‘statue’, sitting in front of the TV all day. Yusuf left home when he was 18. Sorting out Mustafa's things, he discovers two ‘dusty cassettes’ and a tape recorder. He plays the first one and we are taken back to 1996 and hear Mustafa rapping with his friend Omar on the decks. In the present day as we see Yusuf living with grief, turning to Grief Music for reassurance and comfort. The character of Yusuf's great aunt, Dolly Aunty, bridges the gap between the two time periods we are exploring.
The play has been written as a two-hander, with one actor playing Yusef, Mustafa, Dolly Aunty and Paul, the white English headteacher at Yusef's school, and another playing Omar and Khalil, a second-generation British Pakistani and student in Yusuf's English class. He is sent to the headteacher's office for saying that Hamlet was ‘radicalised by his father's ghost’. Headteacher Paul is responsible for implementing Khalil's internal exclusion and contacting the Metropolitan Police's Prevent Officers who search Khalil's house in suspicion of radicalisation.
Statues centres around subjects of grief and racism, with an accessible script made up of monologues, duologues, rap and poetry. There are words in Urdu, with a glossary at the end of the script. Although the themes are serious, the script is often lighthearted and amusing, making it a good option for those aged 16+.
It received its premiere in October 2024 at the Bush Theatre with Azan Ahmed and Jonny Khan in the two roles.