BU21 (NHB Modern Plays)

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Absolutely. I’m over the moon to see this piece given further life. I always felt it was a play that was extremely relevant and would become no less relevant over time. It’s fantastic for Kuleshov [Theatre] to be starting 2017 in the West End. We are a company that was born in the latter part of 2014 to stage Stuart’s first full-length play, Cans. So in a relatively short time we’ve gone from playing above pubs to playing in Trafalgar Square. We might be uncomfortable with the cynicism and the way that it seems by the end of the play to suggest that the Muslim character Clive might improbably become extremely religious as a result of a failed personal relationship.

BU21: Theatre503, Clive Kene, Graham O’Mara and Florence Roberts. Image courtesy of David Monteith-HodgeFrom left to right: Ana (Roxana Lupu, out of focus in left foreground); Alex (Alex Forsyth); Clive (Clive Keene); Graham (Graham O’Mara, illuminated); Thalissa (Thalissa Teixeira); and Floss (Florence Roberts). Photo courtesy of David Monteith-Hodge. The characters' youth is crucial. This is a generation that has grown up with terrorism. They've waited all their lives for this, conditioned to see the danger on their doorstep. "The whole thing was just so unreal," Thalissa gawps –"like being in a film." I’m not watching a moralistic drama documentary but an immersive piece of theatre with characters I care about played by a refreshing, young, energetic cast, sculptured by an equally energetic and talented new director, Matt Bond. Despite the transfer to the centre, Slade is keen to emphasise just how critical Theatre503 was both to his own success and that of the show. ‘I started writing plays about 4 years ago’, he notes, ‘I didn’t want my daughter thinking I only wrote commercials’. Theatre503, especially the work of the likes of Steve Harper and the Rapid Response Sessions at 503, helped Slade find both his voice and, more importantly a team. They’ve been, in a nutshell, ‘massively supportive…people care. It’s the best place to do your first show’. The physical venue itself also gave the play something unexpectedly apt: ‘the thin walls, letting in the sirens of police cars and ambulances, gave the show a sense of immediacy’ – producing the relevant tone and impact no doubt. However fictional, this event reminds us of the tragedies that occur nowadays with frightening regularity – school massacres, suicide bombs, mass shootings… Pretty grim subject for a play performed at the theatre in the very heart of the West End, but the location – between the main tourist attractions (as well as terrorist targets): Big Ben and Trafalgar Square – makes the subject even more relevant.

Matt Bond directs with a fine brush and a pallet full of passion – he has drilled his company into making the most of what Slade has given him to work with and uses the intimate acting space to full dramatic effect. So you know how on the news these days there's just this endless stream of horrendous shit going down, like every single night? Suicide bombs, mass shootings, genocides, drone strikes, school massacres – it's like the end of the world or something... And you're kind of like – "Could I even cope if that stuff happened to me?"' The final member of the company is Findlay Macdonald – quite splendid as a loathsome opportunist whom fate makes the spokesperson for the survivors.

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If you’re auditioning for drama school, you need to come up with a pretty great contemporary monologue choice that shows you know a bit of contemporary drama and not just the stuff you did at school. Clive, who was bullied and called Osama Bin Laden at school after 9/11, became Muslim to rebel against his father. We learn that he wanted to go to Syria to help as he heard about children being gassed. The actor tells us with simplicity and ease how he was only stopped from going by his father and how useful it is to look muslim and start praying on a bus to scare away people eating smelly food… While frequently joking, Clive is the only character that goes through true transformation during the performance, others just narrate their emotional states. A small detail that he started growing beard again as his relationship with Floss broke down makes us wonder what is next for him. In a series of monologues and a couple of short dialogues, loosely linked by a survivors' therapy group, these young people tell the audience about the way the explosion affected their lives.

But, most of all, we can come away disappointed that the usual silence about survivors has in this show been replaced by characters that are little better than the fantasies favoured by tabloid journalism.The first character comes on stage from the audience, as if demonstrating that she is one of us: a girl on crutches, called Izzy, her mum died in the crash. She tells us that when you watch such atrocities on tv, “you can’t conceive this happening to you, but then it does…” How would you cope? This becomes the main question of the performance. Coincidentally I reviewed another terrorist outrage play just recently too – The Mercy Seat by Neil Labute. I found Slade’s BU21 a far stronger and much more enjoyable watch.

The performance BU21 at Trafalgar Studios is set in the aftermath of a fictional tragedy: a jet was shot by a surface-to-air missile and crashed in Fulham, South-West London, leaving hundreds of people dead and thousands injured.

This is both thought-provoking and funny, persevere to act two and you’ll go home theatrically fulfilled.