Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Duck
Two Magpies Productions and Pleasance
Genre: Drama, One Person Show, Theatre
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Examination of what it means to be a 21st century Muslim, told via cricket.
Review
We meet the cricket obsessed schoolboy Ismail Akhtar (Qasim Mahmood). Except nobody calls him Ismail : at school he is ‘Smiley’. Even at home he has a variety of monikers, often his father settling on The Little Master, homage to probably the greatest cricketer of all time, Sachin Tendulkar.
We enter the three-quarters rake Pleasance Beneath venue to be met with cricket stumps (although curiously no bails), a bat and a ball on a green wicket. There is a trace of cricket audio in the air, akin to radio commentary. Akhtar takes to the stage with a theatrical ‘Howzat?!’ – the cricketing form of appeal.
The schoolboy Akhtar is not short of confidence when it comes to his cricketing ability : the most runs, the most innings and a century on the board. Now he is being selected to play for the year above him at an elite school – historically a sign of talent.
The year above feels like a significant step up – proper pavilions, scoreboards, away matches nationally. He has aspirations of succeeding at this level and gaining entry into the holy grail of cricketing data : Wisden. With reasonable success he will even get to tour Barbados in the winter – some incentive.
It is 2005 and cricket is the talk of the town : The Ashes (England v Australia test match series) is about to take place and, while Australia have ruled the roost for nearly two decades, England have a realistic chance of success this year.
He goes to the nets (the practice area) to bat. However, a teacher rushes over, Mr Eagles, and orders them to stop on health and safety grounds. It transpires that Eagles is the new cricket master, perhaps not unreasonably, given that he is the record run scorer for the school. Akhtar is asked to bowl, Eagles assuming he bowls googlies. This would require some detailed explanation, but essentially there is racist subtext to this comment. He unfortunately continues to get on Eagles’ bad side,
It is Ismail’s 15th birthday – he is excited as he has dropped plenty of hints about a Newbery bat, the best of breed, used by many professionals. His father, however, proudly gives him a MRF bat, imported from India, as Tendulkar uses it. He barely conceals his disappointment.
The day arrives for his debut, but it is an unmitigated disaster. His technique is found wanting at this higher level and he is out second ball without scoring – what in cricket is referred to as a duck. He absurdly blames the bat.
His relationship with the cricket master somehow deteriorates further – Eagles asks him if his Asian parents are pushy and mistakenly calls him Hamzah. When he is subjected to a slur by one of his team-mates, Eagles dismisses it as banter. Ismail is on racist alert now.
In his second match he fares no better, being run out without facing a delivery. This could be bad luck or bad judgement, but Ismail does not elaborate. The next match arrives, he takes a difficult catch, but Eagles, umpiring, declares it not a good catch. Ismail confronts him, calling him out as racist, kicks over the stumps and leaves the field. Notwithstanding teenage frustration, this is an unprecedented level of petulance.
Ismail does not return to school, walking around central London. But is the 7th of July and his timing continues to be dismal – he is a young Muslim on the day of the London bombings and is arrested. Of course, he is subsequently released but his world has been turned upside down.
Qasim Mahmood is a warm and charismatic performer, revealing Ismail’s soul and understanding of heritage, vulnerably, honestly and sometimes with humour. There were, however, some choices that may bear re-thinking : the audience participation with a cricket ball at the start was slightly awkward and I am unsure what it achieved. The disco dancing Sachin Tendulkar similarly seemed incongruous.
While a cricketing tale, this show examines deep-rooted issues concerning next generation British-born citizens with Indian sub-continent heritage. Norman Tebbit – a cabinet minister under Thatcher – famously postulated the binary test of Britishness : If England play against India, who do you support ? Eagles’ dismissal of slurs as ‘banter’ has huge resonance of the Yorkshire cricket scandal, in which Azeem Rafiq (a former England U-19 captain) made allegations of institutional racism against the club. These allegations, once properly investigated, were widely upheld. Obviously, Muslims experience discrimination and mistrust beyond cricket.
Touchingly, this show at its heart has Ismail’s relationship with his father and how he doubts his belonging in the U.K.. And there is a sense that Ismail is gaining an understanding of what it is to be a Muslim in Britain in the 21st century. Maybe everybody could start by calling him Ismail.
