Word-Play walks the talk

Photo: Osborne Devine

Daniel Nelson

Extraordinarily, while Rabiah Hussain was writing her new play, a brain tumour attacked her ability to read, write, speak and understand words. Extraordinary, because  Word-Play is about the power of language.

Something - never explicitly stated - is uttered by the Prime Minister - never explicitly named, but someone who enjoys “quoting Shakespeare and Churchill to everyone” - sparking panic in the PM’s communications team.

Anticipating a critical Twitter storm (an X storm?), they frantically try to devise ways of blunting the backlash and limiting the damage.

But the unspeakable words cannot be unsaid, nor is there to be an apology, and in a rapid series of short scenes the 90-minute piece illustrate how words matter in a variety of social and personal contexts.

Emojis fly, a couple rows, a dinner party is disrupted, pundits pontificate,  words and phrases are parsed, language is scrutinised, racism is uncovered, assumptions are challenged. “Normal” rightly takes a particular beating.

There’s no continuous story line, no plot, no back-stories. Each scene is briefly illuminated before the spotlight moves to another conversation. Instead of linear story-telling, says Hussain, “we sit in the spaces in-between. Where language can be unpacked and the feeling of words can weave their way between various scenes.” Words, not characters, are the stars, though the cast, setting and direction are excellent.

It’s witty and sharp, though most of the verbal jousting and dissembling is not particularly deep or new: the See it, Say it, Sorted sketch, for example, follows several similar mockings by TV and stand-up comedians. 

Gradually, however, the word-play embraces other dimensions, including the profound resonance of mother-tongues, the absurdity and damage of a Prevent strategy alert on a child’s innocent behaviour, the painful dilemmas of Black parenting, the physical manifestation of verbal assumptions, sleights and insults. Sticks and stones are not the only causes of severe injury.

There’s not enough time to dig down into these important issues, but any play that even holds them up to the light for a few moments - particularly in such an entertaining way - is worthwhile.

• Word-Play is at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, at the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS, until 26 August

  + 2 August, Post-show talk with Rabiah Hussain, free with a ticket to that evening’s performance

  +18 August, My Voice Is… , Hussain performs “a play about language, I lost my ability to communicate because of a brain tumor. As I rediscovered words, I also learnt something about myself as a writer”, after the performance of Word-Play, 9.30pm, £10