Liberation Squares E-Book

Sonali Bhattacharyya

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: NHB Modern Plays
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 64

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

'You've all heard a hundred different versions of what happened. We're here to tell you how it really went down.' Teenage best friends Sabi and Ruqaya spend their time choreographing dance routines, beat-boxing and hiding from bullies. But when charismatic social media activist Xara challenges them to speak up about injustice, they find themselves under state surveillance, targeted by the anti-terrorist 'Prevent' programme. What you say, and even what you think, can be viewed very differently, depending on who you are... Sonali Bhattacharyya's play Liberation Squares is a riotous comedy about sisterhood, freedom of speech, and dissent in the face of institutionalised Islamophobia. It was commissioned and developed by Fifth Word, and first produced in 2024 by Fifth Word and Nottingham Playhouse in association with Brixton House, and directed by Milli Bhatia.

Leseprobe

Sonali Bhattacharyya

LIBERATION SQUARES

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Author’s Note

Characters

Liberation Squares

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

‘If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.’

Audre Lorde

Liberation Squares was produced by Fifth Word and Nottingham Playhouse in association with Brixton House. It was first performed at Nottingham Playhouse on 12 April 2024 before touring. The cast was as follows:

RUQAYA

Vaneeka Dadhria

SABI

Asha Hassan

XARA

Halema Hussain

Other parts played by members of the company.

Director

Milli Bhatia

Designer

Tomás Palmer

Lighting Designer

Joshua Gadsby

Composer and Sound Designer

Elena Peña

Movement Director

Iskandar إسكندر R. Sharazuddin

Casting Director

Arthur Carrington

Dramaturg

afshan d’souza-lodhi

Assistant Director

Jade Franks

Associate Designer

Ania Levy

Associate Sound Designer

Bella Kear

Costume Supervisor

Emilie Carter

Props Supervisor

Hannah Zemlak

Production Managers

Rachel Bowen Andrew Quick Jamie Smith

Stage Manager

Katie Bosomworth

Author’s Note

I wanted to write a play about the incredible imagination, inquisitiveness and creativity teenagers have – this is what forges the messy bond between Xara, Ruqaya and Sabi. Right now, we’re witnessing rapidly normalised Islamophobia and racism, including in government policies like the Prevent surveillance programme, and I wanted to explore how this inhibits young people’s confidence, freedom of expression, and even their futures. I wanted to tell this story through the points of view of young people themselves, with all of the joyful spirit of rebellion that entails.

Sonali Bhattacharyya

Characters

SABI, introvert, overthinker, big on details

RUQAYA, extrovert, loose talker, richly imaginative

XARA, charismatic, articulate, confident but lonely

All British Muslim girls in their teens

NADIA, articulate and polished course leader. To be played by any/all of the three actors

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

Prologue

RUQAYA and SABI enter and put together what they need to tell us this story. They write the locations where the story will take place on a whiteboard. RUQAYA beatboxes, establishing a different soundscape for each location.

SABI (direct address). You’ve all heard a hundred different versions of what happened. We’re here to tell you how it really went down… Hard to believe this all started just a few months ago. A lot’s happened in the meantime.

RUQAYA (direct address). Yeah. Like I got sick at beatboxing…

Scene One

A few months ago. RUQAYA and SABI enter in their school uniforms, rapping and dancing, with a carefully choreographed routine. RUQAYA is the more confident of the two and SABI has to sneak looks at her every now and then to make sure she’s getting the moves right. It’s the afternoon and they’re in Ruqaya’s bedroom.

RUQAYA. Ruqaya and Sabi, we’re here to disarm,

SABI. Leave your preconceptions at the door, yeah?

RUQAYA. We’re sounding the alarm.

SABI. Putting forward our case in the public eye.

RUQAYA. Leaving the shadows. We’re ready to fly.

SABI. Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly.

RUQAYA. I’m not a ninja, I’m the harbinger of justice and truth, No need to be aloof.

SABI slows down. Misses part of the routine.

My eyes are open, my tongue is sharp, So get with the programme cos we’re hitting the mark.

SABI (breaking out of the routine completely). When did we add those?

RUQAYA. Last night. Was almost asleep. It’s like they came to me in my dreams, yeah? You know Kendrick Lamar comes up with lyrics like that?

SABI. You’re not Kendrick Lamar.

RUQAYA. I’m just saying. I’m literally coming up with this stuff in my sleep.

SABI. I don’t like it.

RUQAYA. Why?

SABI. We’re not saying we’re ‘ninjas’. I’m not saying that.

RUQAYA. The line is ‘I’m not a ninja’.

SABI. Yeah, but we say it and it puts the idea in people’s minds, doesn’t it?

RUQAYA. Dunno, does it?

SABI. It’s like saying – ‘don’t think about elephants’. And then all you can think about is elephants.

RUQAYA. Didn’t say we were like elephants.

SABI. Yeah, but we’re not like ninjas either, are we?

RUQAYA. I am.

SABI. No you’re not.

RUQAYA. Ninjas are brilliant. They hide out in underground lairs and kill people with swords and you never know they’re coming, you just see the flash of their eyes as they plunge you into oblivion. (Mimes dying in agony.) You love ninjas.

SABI. No I don’t.

RUQAYA. Used to.

SABI. I don’t any more.

RUQAYA. Ninjas are the closest thing we’ve ever had to real life superheroes. If Moon Girl was a real person she’d be a ninja.

SABI. What…?

RUQAYA. Or Ms. Marvel. If Kamala Khan was real she’d be a ninja.

SABI. She’s not real, and ninjas aren’t real.

RUQAYA. They’re more real than your comic books, that’s all I’m saying.

SABI. What if Zoe or Steph see this? Or the girls from St Saviour’s?

RUQAYA. How would they see it? You never let us record anything.

SABI. They might hear about it.

RUQAYA. From who?

SABI. Not giving them ammunition to throw at us.

RUQAYA. We could stir up beef and get people to follow us. People love a bit of aggro. They’ll all want a ringside seat.

SABI. No one cares who we have beef with.

RUQAYA. Not yet.

SABI. …And even if they did. They’re not going to be there for us when we’re getting the bus home, are they?

RUQAYA. Steph and those bitches wouldn’t mess with us if we had bare followers.

SABI. You are dreaming, Ruqaya.

RUQAYA. ‘I’m not a ninja, I’m the harbinger of truth…’ Don’t care what you say, that rhyme slaps.

SABI. We can’t say things just because they rhyme.

RUQAYA. A rhyme makes sense. A rhyme is natural. A rhyme flows –

‘’Tis light makes colour visible: at night Red, greene, and russet vanish from thy sight.’

SABI. …Okay.

RUQAYA. It’s Rumi.

SABI. I know. I get it. Still not saying that line.

RUQAYA. Okay, relax, it’s not that deep. I’ll change it. Told you, lyrics are bare easy for me anyway.

SABI. Thank you.

RUQAYA. You messed up the steps after the second line.

SABI. No I didn’t.

RUQAYA. You’re supposed to take one step out. Otherwise we’re not symmetrical.

SABI. We said two steps.

RUQAYA. Yeah, well maybe you need two, because of your short legs. (Direct address.) We always did a knee bend, arm out, hip swivel, and a floor touch.

SABI (direct address). It worked, for that song. For the chorus.

RUQAYA (direct address). For the verse it was more of a freestyle.

SABI (direct address). Not me. I always did a step left, step right, step forwards, lunge, arms out, head turn.

She runs through the moves in the moment, efficient, concentrating.

Ruqaya’s thing was always hip hop – the music, the lyrics, the videos, everything.

RUQAYA (direct address). Sabi’s thing was comics.

SABI (direct address). Graphic novels.

RUQAYA (direct address). And being a tight arse.

SABI (direct address). Before Xara, it was just me and Ruqaya. Things were simple. Straightforward. We had a system.

RUQAYA (direct address). It’s called being tac-tic-al.

SABI (direct address). We had to get the bus to and from school twice a day. Keeping our heads down was just best for our mental health.

RUQAYA (direct address). Defence was the best form of offence.

Scene Two

They wheel out a whiteboard and SABI draws a diagram.

RUQAYA (direct address). Stop BD was nearer to both of us.

SABI (direct address). But we used the one further down, like, five minutes away. Stop BE.

SABI