Tag Archives: Joseph Winer

Brown Boys Swim

Brown Boys Swim

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

BROWN BOYS SWIM at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

 

Brown Boys Swim

 

“The real strength of Khan’s script is in the dialogue: natural, light and really playful”

 

Anish Roy and Varun Raj play two best friends, Mohsen and Kash, in a new play by Karim Khan about friendship, adolescence and religious identity. Mohsen and Kash are Muslim. Unlike their peers, they choose not to drink alcohol, don’t get invited to all the parties and, critically, can’t swim. After Kash manages to bag an invite to a pool party in one months’ time, they begin making regular visits to the local swimming pool to try and change this. But on their way to learning backstroke and front crawl, they begin to question other choices they make, and their friendship is put to the test with tragic consequences.

The real strength of Khan’s script is in the dialogue: natural, light and really playful. Rather than each scene revolving around big dramatic plot points, we get an insight into the dynamic between the characters, who pray together, spend time with each other’s families, and know each and every part of the other person. We also find out quite early on about an accident where a young man named Amir drowned some time earlier. The water is dangerous for two boys who never learnt to swim. Urdu phrases and other snippets of the boys’ culture are embedded in their conversations, and the scenes are performed with generosity and spontaneity by Roy and Raj. Kash is cheeky and flirty. Mohsen is more focused and averse to risk.

James Bailey’s lighting design takes us softly through a multi-coloured palette of blues and greens and purples. Combined with Roshan Gunga’s sound design and composition, with strings and splashes of water, the scene transitions give the feel of a gentle swim stroke, taking us carefully through the water to the next part of the story. James Button creates a blue-tiled wall, about waist-height, which is cleverly and subtly moved into different angles and positions, along with a couple of simple wooden benches to create the different scenes; it’s especially effective when the characters are behind it, the top of the wall acting as the pool edge, with Roy and Raj holding on for dear life, trying to find the courage to bop their heads below the water on the other side.

The script does build a little slowly, with a very abrupt plot-twist at the end which feels too fast to get the emotional impact I think this moment needs. We hear throughout the boys dealing with judgement, micro-aggressions and racism; shop security who assume they’re thieves; the revelation that the party invite was only because it was assumed they’d be bringing drugs; and the way the boys are stared at by people in the swimming pool. The ending attempts at showing the possible consequences of this structural, everyday prejudice, but it feels like a slightly shoehorned conclusion which jars with the tempo and energy of everything up to that point.

Questions around manhood, masculinity, and what makes a ‘good Muslim’, as well as the emotional dependency these two boys have on each other, is where the writing really thrives. Brown Boys Swim is an engaging drama, with compelling performances and a brilliant design and staging, with sharp direction from John Hoggarth.

 

 

Reviewed 14th August 2022

by Joseph Winer

Photography by  Geraint Lewis

 

 

For dates and venues for all Fringe shows, click on the image below

 

 

Click here to read all our latest reviews

 


Grandmothers Closet

Grandmother’s Closet

★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

GRANDMOTHER’S CLOSET at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★

 

Grandmothers Closet

“A messy first half turns into a touching second”

 

Luke Hereford’s solo autobiographical show is a musical journey through his life growing up in Wales, discovering his queerness, and his relationship with his nan, who also happens to be his number one fan, and his best friend. Set at her ninetieth birthday party, Hereford is joined on stage by pianist Bobby Harding, who accompanies them with a soundtrack of Kylie, Kate Bush, and Meet Me in St Louis.

There’s a lot to admire in the show. It’s sort of fabulously chaotic, a little bit messy, which kind of suits the tone as Hereford plays dress up with items from his grandmother’s onstage wardrobe. It’s old fashioned, the insides patterned with pale pink florals. On the other side of the stage is a dressing table, draped with a few bits of Nan’s jewellery and perfume bottles; a hollow mirror, which Harding pokes their head behind, sat at the piano. Hereford narrates stories of his first time at pride (with Nan providing the lube and condoms), and their trip to Broadway together, to see eight shows in five days. But Nan, as later revealed, has dementia. And it’s heartbreaking for Hereford, and us, to see her memories fading. She’s his biggest icon. But, as he eventually realises, ‘even if your memory fades, I’ll always have them, even if you don’t’.

The musical numbers and staging are generally a bit all over the place. Hereford doesn’t have the strongest vocals, and sometimes loses control of the performance as he tries to get through the songs. He’s certainly very committed to the act, which is commendable, but some tighter direction or choreography could really help give each of the segments a bit more purpose. In one section he sort of waves a large white sheet around, and I’m not really sure what’s happening.

The action of trying to get the lipstick on properly, and then finally getting it right, gives the show a really nice overall character arc. We feel by the end that Hereford does now have what they need to be their true self, even if Nan isn’t around anymore in the way she used to be. A messy first half turns into a touching second, but the show as a whole needs quite a bit of tidying up to become something really special.

 

Reviewed 13th August 2022

by Joseph Winer

 

Photography by Kirsten McTernan

 

For dates and venues for all Fringe shows, click on the image below

 

 

 

Click here to read all our latest reviews