Don't be put off by the verbose introductions ("tearing at the wounds of white working-class Britain revealing screams of abandonment"): the theatre company Red Ladder have been creating radical, provocative shows for over 40 years. Their first play was performed as part of the Trafalgar Square Festival in 1968.
Hurling Rubble: plays about politics
This duo of shows emerged from research into the rise of extremist right-wing politics. Hurling Rubble at the Moon explores the rift between white Englishmen and second-generation British Asians. Hurling Rubble at the Sun charts the story of Chief, a British Asian based in North England who watches the World Trade Centre collapse. The landscape around him changes into something unrecognisable for Chief and his friends.
Playwright and poet: Avaes Mohammad
Mohammad was raised in Lancashire, originally training as a chemist. But when his town was at the heart of BNP rioting after 9/11, he turned to writing poetry and plays. Mohammad won the Amnesty International Media Award for his poem Bhopal, about the fatal gas leak from a pesticide plant in India. A Fellow of the Muslim Institute, he also founded the Lahore Agitprop Theatre Company in Pakistan.
Red Ladder Theatre Company collaboration
Mohammad approached Rod Dixon, Red Ladder's artistic director, saying he wanted "to purge the last 13 years of anxiety and insecurity by writing a play about what it is to be a Muslim in Britain today." His plays cover 9/11, the London bombings, Lee Rigby's murder and the opposing forces of Muslim Extremism and Islamophobia. Writer and company met with the founding members of the EDL (English Defence League) and more frighteningly, British branches of the Ku Klux Klan. Their research was in-depth and disturbing.
Rod Dixon will direct Hurling Rubble at the Sun and Jez Bond, the Park Theatre's artistic director, will direct Hurling Rubble at the Moon. Dixon promises that panels and discussions concerning the plays’ themes will follow the performances, inviting the audience to participate.
Hurling Rubble: plays about politics
This duo of shows emerged from research into the rise of extremist right-wing politics. Hurling Rubble at the Moon explores the rift between white Englishmen and second-generation British Asians. Hurling Rubble at the Sun charts the story of Chief, a British Asian based in North England who watches the World Trade Centre collapse. The landscape around him changes into something unrecognisable for Chief and his friends.
Playwright and poet: Avaes Mohammad
Mohammad was raised in Lancashire, originally training as a chemist. But when his town was at the heart of BNP rioting after 9/11, he turned to writing poetry and plays. Mohammad won the Amnesty International Media Award for his poem Bhopal, about the fatal gas leak from a pesticide plant in India. A Fellow of the Muslim Institute, he also founded the Lahore Agitprop Theatre Company in Pakistan.
Red Ladder Theatre Company collaboration
Mohammad approached Rod Dixon, Red Ladder's artistic director, saying he wanted "to purge the last 13 years of anxiety and insecurity by writing a play about what it is to be a Muslim in Britain today." His plays cover 9/11, the London bombings, Lee Rigby's murder and the opposing forces of Muslim Extremism and Islamophobia. Writer and company met with the founding members of the EDL (English Defence League) and more frighteningly, British branches of the Ku Klux Klan. Their research was in-depth and disturbing.
Rod Dixon will direct Hurling Rubble at the Sun and Jez Bond, the Park Theatre's artistic director, will direct Hurling Rubble at the Moon. Dixon promises that panels and discussions concerning the plays’ themes will follow the performances, inviting the audience to participate.
As Mohammad puts it in his poem Clash: "The books that flow past borders and won't stop". His two latest productions promise to do the same.
| What | Hurling Rubble at the Sun & Hurling Rubble at the Moon, the Park Theatre |
| Where | Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, London, N4 3JP | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Finsbury Park (underground) |
| When |
13 May 15 – 06 Jun 15, Tue – Sat Evenings 21.00; Thu & Sat Matinees 16.00 |
| Price | £15-£25 |
| Website | Click here to book via the Park Theatre website |
