Invasion!

“He was wicked Abulkasem. She is mad Abulkasem. Don’t play the Abulkasem.” But who or what is ‘Abulkasem’? That is precisely what Invasion! at the Soho Theatre sets out to answer.

Exploring what it means to be a young Arab in Europe today, this satirical comedy calls into question our deepest prejudices about identity, race and language.

From the moment you step foot in the theatre the performance gets underway, testing your perceptions of those around you. Without your knowledge you and the rest of the audience are craftily united into a collective entity, allowing for a shared experience which will leave you questioning your very understanding of a tolerant multicultural society.

This is not a performance which will allow you to sit back and get comfy for the evening. The audience is made to play an integral role in the play – with collective prejudices uncomfortably laid bare for all to see – leaving some searching for their nearest exits. But no-one leaves.

The performance, written by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, is captivating and real, taking you through a rollercoaster of different emotions from savage comedy to deep empathy, and all the while questioning what it is to live within a multicultural society.

But Invasion! does not stop there – clever direction by Lucy Kerbel enables the very nature and role of theatre itself to be called into question as monologues, panel discussions and group debates are seamlessly interwoven into a series of sketches. The audience find themselves intimately drawn into the debate, being manipulated as a prop whilst simultaneously having both their perceptions and social boundaries put to the test.

Aiding this are two mesmerising performances by Gregg Chillin and Viss Elliot Safavi who carry the play and succeed in slipping between a number of diverse characters with both ease and charisma.

Following two years of sell-out performances in Stockholm, Invasion! has been translated for the British audience and easily depicts British perceptions and experiences of multicultural life.

But the transition from Stockholm to London is incomplete. Casual references to the Swedish capital at times let the audience off the hook enabling you to believe that some references are perhaps less pertinent to the British experience than they may actually be. A more thorough translation to British life could have enabled a more rigorous investigation of British attitudes towards race, identity and language.

That aside, this play remains a must see for those seeking an insight into the realities of the prejudices and intolerances that persist within our ‘tolerant’ multicultural society.

Invasion! Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London, W1D 3NE, Until March 28th , www.sohotheatre.com