Presented by Ambreen Razia with Black Theatre Live
Written & performed by Ambreen Razia
Unity Theatre, Liverpool
16th June 2016

Reviewed by Darren Guy

‘Amazing Performance’

A ‘Hounslow girl’, according to Ambreen Razia, in her debut play, has become a byword for a new breed of young Muslim women who wear hooped earrings along with their headscarves, have one foot in the Mosque, in the traditional Muslim upbringing, and another in the hustle and bustle of life on London streets.

This is an insightful eye-opening, provocative play.written and performed by the young Razia.

Razia plays Shaheeda, a young 16-year-old girl, living with her mother in Hounslow. The whole play is set in Shaheeda’s bedroom, and takes us through the trails, and the ups and downs, of her relationship with her family, her mates and her first boyfriend. She is funny, lively, agitated, expectant, nervous, and upset. Something is bothering her.

Including traditional Pakistani weddings, to fights on the night bus, to her dreams, this is a funny, bold, provocative play highlighting the challenges of being brought up as a young woman from a traditional Muslim family, alongside the temptations and influences of growing up in London.

The 85 minutes of the play kept me stuck to my seat, Razia gives a amazing performance and portrays the energy and the honesty perfectly of a teenage girl trying to stake a place in the world, pushing back against the expectations put upon her by her upbringing, and her fear she would end up like her mother, her sister or the young girl pushing a pram through the streets. Afraid she would be stuck in Hounslow forever.

It was at the Unity for one night only, but catch it in another city.