In an inner city secondary school, teacher Amanda steps in to break up a fight between students. In the process, she is assaulted though is reluctant to report perpetrator Jason as his exclusion would harm his future prospects.
Jason also recognises the impact of his actions but strikes first by fabricating a counter claim of assault and racial abuse against his teacher. Amanda initially thinks the fuss will soon blow over but the ensuing drama is like watching a pile of dominoes crash one after the other – each move causing further layers of hurt, hate and destruction.
As things progress from the school through the layers of local authority bureaucracy, the allegation has grave consequences for both sides.
Vivienne Franzmann’s debut full length play is an assured work, drawing heavily on her extensive teaching career for an insight into the challenges of trying to balance support and encouragement with discipline in education. Franzmann’s script carefully unveils layers of detail, building for a horrifying yet compulsive viewing. Much is helped by the gritty realism of the dialogue and the carefully drawn characters, each totally believable and recognisable.
Franzmann could have easily turned Jason into a villain; however, while his attempts to intimidate and control his gang to make increasingly overblown accusations to support him are abhorrent, there is a backstory, carefully revealed that, while not condoning his actions, make them comprehensible. It is his father who perhaps describes it best – a little boy desperately trying to play at being a man.
There are strong performances throughout the company, giving each character a well observed depth. Ryan Calais Cameron is impressive as the troubled Jason – full of pent-up aggression and frustration. Jackie Clune’s Amanda also develops nicely, from the easy going teacher always seeing the best in her pupils to a woman whose hopes and dreams have been destroyed by the system.
Matthew Dunster’s production flows seamlessly from scene to scene, building up tension throughout, making great use of Tom Scutt’s multipurpose caged set. Using the ensemble to carry out swift scene changes maintains pace and Ian Dickinson’s subtle yet effective underscore builds on the palpable sense of conflict.
It is an impressive and relevant piece that manages to keep the wide age range in the audience totally enthralled throughout. The ending, while dramatic, does seem somewhat out of kilter with the rest of the production and some of the teenagers’ performances need dialling back a couple of notches away from Catherine Tate’s ‘am I bovverred’ angst. These are minor points, however, as overall this is a production that can’t fail to impress. It may prove uncomfortable viewing at times, and the language is certainly not for the faint hearted, but it is a compelling and powerful drama told with skill and flair.
Originally written for The Public Reviews
2 comments:
I watched this play with horror - written by a white middle class woman it
deals with racism sexism and youth in London and therefore I expected it
to be problematic but I was not expecting this. It is an outright attack
on working class people - on black men in particular. It effectively
blames black men for the ills of society - at a time when we are being
attacked by the police to such an extent that there have been mass
uprisings in London and across major English cities last summer.
Meanwhile this play pedals out the usual racist offensive lines and
stereotypes. It puts the "whiteman" as the hero who is trying to do his
level best against the youth, the working class and the black. In
particular the African. No one can say why this play is called Mogadishu -
actors claim it is because the name is synonymous with chaos and war - if
it was just this then surely Iraq would be a better name? No - this is
about Africa - the cannibal joke is also not arbitrary. It is a reference
to the racist myth of savage Africa - of the white mans’ burden - and
reveals the more sinister purpose of this play - to justify white
colonialism. This is a truly disgusting play - the tragedy is that we as
black people cannot defend ourselves against it - the white liberal
bourgeoisie revel in their soft "complicated" racism - give the play
awards and congratulate the author while we Africans Asians and all other
oppressed peoples are left subject to this horrific attack.
What solutions does this play point towards? What ideas does it give us?
In the play it is the anti-racist legislation - the hard earned and fought
for scraps of legal self defence that we have won in this country since
the 60s that are seen as the problem. Racism is presented as a myth!
Interestingly it uses the white woman as the misguided hero - misguided
because she loves a black man - which blinds her to the racist reality
that the white man has tried to show her. The logic of this play leads to
apartheid style sexual segregation. It is horrific and I urge the makers
of this play to withdraw it and apologise. As a play about a womans
struggle in a patriarchal world it has value but the racism element has
made it deeply racist.
Absolute rubbish. Mogadishu is a perfectly valid reflection of society in Britain. The fact that the Jason character is a young black male is completely irrelevant - he could be white, Asian, Chinese or Martian. The story is about the teacher and how she's stitched up by those around her and how pressures in the classroom - caused by lefty liberal areguments like this - are forcing so many dedicated and talented educators to leave the profession. The clue is in the title - MOGADISHU - our schools have become war zones!
It's exactly this kind of stupid, over-sensitive political-correctness that's causing so much unrest in this country. Claiming that those idiots who were rioting last summer did so because of the colour of their skin is in itself racist. The rioters, regardless of their ethnicity, were morally-bereft underachievers who believe that society owes them something for nothing. A far greater majority of black and Asian people sat at home quietly and looked on in horror, or even took positive action to protect their communities.
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