Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
Stuck on a roundabout
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
three
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China
Speed
Holloway Theatre
A STAGGERING 1.5 million drivers attend retraining courses every year in the UK, making this widespread educational experience an ideal vehicle for dramatic exploration. Enter Mohamed-Zain Dada’s Speed, where three British-Pakistani motorists find themselves inducted into the DVLA’s new pilot scheme, the Rehabilitating and Unlearning National Driving Initiative or RUNDI for short.
Three drivers, all with nine points on their licence, find themselves in the volatile hands of facilitator Abz (Nikesh Patel). Faiza (Shazia Nicholls) is a well-to-do Surrey business lady; Samir (Arian Nik), a laddish delivery driver from H-Town (Harehills) in Leeds and Harleen (Sabrina Sandhu), a Brummie nurse whose heavy workload is taking its toll.
Things get off to a breakneck, hilarious start as the contrasting course mates are introduced to the personality awareness model, the Johari Window – definitely not “the Jihadi window” the spunky Samir deliberately mistakes it for. Abz struggles to keep things on the straight and narrow as the laughs continue to flow and tumbling revelations begin to take a darker edge.
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