breaDth – Omnibus Theatre, London

Writer: Raminder Kaur

Director: Mukul Ahmed

Helping communities process trauma is one of the great roles of art in general, theatre and live performance in particular. It allows both the creative team and performers as well as an audience the time and space to explore an issue and process it from multiple angles – some new, some familiar but not yet resolved. We’ve seen a rush of new work that seeks to deal with our collective instability post-COVID-19 pandemic – with breaDth now joining the ranks.

It seeks to deal with a wide range of issues impacting people, and especially minority communities through the time – carers subject to racial abuse, the pressure to work and interact with people even in a time of widespread sickness, loneliness, pressurised medical systems and all that layered with the general difficult racial tensions associated with sport in England. There’s a lot going on, and while it’s fairly clear what the intention is, it’s hard to engage with.

It’s all told through a dual-track set-up – one dominated by the experiences of Ibn Khaldun who shows us suffering and discrimination associated with widespread illness through history (beginning in 1350 with the plague), and one telling the story of two modern British families, one with an elderly mother Edie and the other a vibrant immigrant family whose father, Tahir, becomes Edie’s carer. These stories mix with Ibn appearing to Edie in her dreams, asking her to come along with him to his more mystical realm. It does have some great moments as it progresses. Its portrayal of the sad frustration experienced when an elderly loved one experiences signs of dementia and expresses a wish to die is touching and the fear created in the migrant family of racial abuse after England lose a football match is highly affecting.

They’re not enough to salvage the work overall. Clunky transitions, performances that don’t convince, sound and music that change too abruptly and jarringly, and writing that varies in quality contribute to a general feeling of not quite being sure what it is we’re being shown and why. It also may be a minor point, but the novel spelling of the title, breaDth, is not ever made clear.

It’s an admirable project, to bring voices and experiences of minority communities who experienced the pandemic and life in modern England in unique ways to the stage. The presentation here is unclearly focused, missing a big chance to hit home the powerful messages it hints at.

Runs until 3 June 2023