Four British Somali girls are thrown together in detention at a south London mosque, having erred in “dugsi” (Islamic school). Sabrina Ali’s play is inspired by the high-schoolers in John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club. Like them, these girls, all chalk and cheese, have no choice but to engage with each other, especially when their teacher goes Awol.
Ali also plays Munira, a mischief maker, while Yasmin (Faduma Issa) wears a hot-pink jacket and talks about a friend’s bridal shower, and Salma (Susu Ahmed), a teachers’ pet, won’t reveal why she has been sent to detention with them. The mysterious Hani (Hadsan Mohamud) sits slightly apart, giving the other girls the side-eye, her reason for being there unexplained.
Directed by Poppy Clifford and originally co-directed by Warda Mohamed, the girls bicker, tease, gossip and eventually begin telling stories that lead to a degree of self-exposure. It is all charming but the high jinks are protracted, the jokes do not always land and some exchanges seem too much like disjointed warmup riffs. The play ends just as the drama deepens and we begin to learn a bit more about these girls – but for too brief a time. As a result, the exploration of girlhood, identity and mother-daughter relationships are short and unsatisfactory, with neither the conflicts nor moments of bonding dramatic enough.
It is full of exuberant banter nonetheless, matched by all four performances, which are especially strong on physical comedy. And when the humour works, it fizzes. It is also extremely refreshing to see these vivid and joyful characters on stage, wearing the hijab but not explaining their Islamic identity to us. It demystifies young, visibly Muslim, British Somali femininity at a time of rising Islamophobia.
Faith is in the background of these characters’ lives though, not forced into the foreground, with religious phrases referred to in passing, such as the reminders about the sin of gossip, even when they huddle up and ruminate on the mystery that swirls around Hani’s past.
The production as a whole contains so much potential for a deeper, sharper drama; the framework is there, it just needs more meat on the bone.
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Dugsi Dayz runs at the Royal Court, London, until 18 May.