Community is a new play by Birmingham-based writer Farrah Chaudhry. It is on for a short run at the Birmingham Rep before heading out on a tour of local community centres.
Zoya (Sabrina Nabi) is the spoiled daughter of wealthy parents who have gone to the Maldives leaving her homeless and penniless. She heads back to her home town of Birmingham and scrounges a sofa to sleep on from her old friend, Leyla (Kerena Jagpal). Leyla is a hard-working, dungaree-wearing pillar of the community, and she shares a flat with Khalil (Sayyid Aki), a Syrian refugee. All three are Muslim, and their faith, and their varying degrees of religious observance, unites and divides them at various points throughout the play.
The story is a familiar Odd Couple, 2 Broke Girls formula. Leyla insists that Zoya comes with her to work at the local community centre where Zoya alternates between breathing new life into the place and generating chaos. Zoya is highly computer literate, and she helps a local resident get the benefits she is entitled to. But when she suggests they stage a talent contest, she promotes it by offering an all expenses paid holiday as a first prize, which horrifies Leyla. Inevitably, lessons are learned and their friendship is rebuilt. As Leyla says to Zoya, “are you spoiled? Yes. Are you worthy of another chance? Again, yes.”
Khalil acts as a spirit guide to Zoya. His profound loss puts her own privilege into perspective and, while she flirts with other religions, his faith is sincere and deeply felt. In several scenes, we see him with his tasbih prayer beads, and his faith has helped him to accept his loss, “yes, I miss my family but I am lucky to have a family to miss”. He expresses both his sense of loss and his religious conviction through his poetry, and, with Zoya’s encouragement, he recites one of them at the talent contest. His poem is the dramatic climax of the play, and Sayyid Aki plays it beautifully.
Community is described on The Rep’s web site as "a coming of age comedy", which it isn’t really. Beneath its sitcom format, it has a serious message. All three characters have lost, or are estranged from, their respective families; as Leyla says to Zoya, “sometimes God has a different plan. A better one.” They find emotional support in each other and in the wider community. We, the audience, form a temporary community for the duration of the play, and in his poem, Khalil refers to the fajr, the morning prayer, and the sense of connection it gives him with the Muslim community around the world.
Community is an in-house Birmingham Rep production which follows the guidance of The Theatre Green Book on sustainability. When we first meet Leyla, she is at a bus stop reading Kate Raworth’s book on sustainability, Doughnut Economics, which is a nice touch. To emphasise its homegrown, sustainable localism, the play is full of references to, amongst others, Aston Villa, Balsall Heath, which does not have a Waitrose, and Edgbaston, which does, and the rivalry with Wolverhampton. The line “you can always count on the No. 50” got a laugh of recognition from the audience. I used to live on the No. 50 bus route, and I can confirm this is true. (The No. 1, however, is a different story).
Community runs a tight 90 minutes with no interval. Jida Akil’s set is simple and versatile, and Alice Chambers’s direction is functional and direct. The scene changes are small movement pieces in themselves, beautifully choreographed by the movement director, Hamza Ali, and accompanied by an original score composed by Felix Dubs.