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Approaching Empty
Kiln Theatre, London
THE DEARTH of northern voices, especially authentic working-class ones, on the London stage made the proposition of Ishy Din’s Approaching Empty an appealing one.
His third play, set in a Middlesbrough cab office, draws directly on his experiences as a taxi driver in the city and explores the post-industrial fortunes of middle-aged Asian men against the fitting backdrop of Margaret Thatcher's death in 2013.
It gets off to a lively start, with ruthless entrepreneur Raf (Nicholas Khan) trading blows with his best friend of 40 years and well-meaning assistant Mansha (Kammy Darweish) over the future of the business and the legacy of Thatcher.
Their differing opinions are clear markers, not just for their characters but the overall pattern of the play as former steel worker Mansha hopes that “she suffered” while the cold Raf brusquely wonders: “Who cares?”
Disappointingly, that pattern is far too predictable once the guileless Mansha decides to try and buy the old banger of a business from Raf with the help of his son-in-law Sully (Nicholas Prasad) and the spiky Sameena (Rina Fatania).
Aside from a tense scene where the wheels really come off, there is little intrigue in the plot, not helped by the cautiously slow pace of the production.
The stand-out performances come from Darweish, who nails the misty-eyed petulance of Mansha, while Fatania’s Sameena elevates the evening by combining feistiness with spot-on comic timing.
Din’s reflections on the accumulation of capital within deindustrialised communities and how it can create a race-to-the-bottom environment, in which everything and everyone is for sale, are penetrating.
Sadly, the transparent plot and the leisurely pace stop Approaching Empty from ever really finding top gear.
Runs until February 2, box office: kilntheatre.com, then tours until April 13, details: tamasha.org.uk.
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