Award-winning theatre companies Common Wealth and Fuel Theatre collaborate with Bradford collective Speakers’ Corner and writer Zia Ahmed to lift the bonnet on Bradford youth culture.

Peaceophobia is an ambitiously audacious, immersive production that intersects community, culture and cars, and unapologetically rejects everything the city has come to represent in pure Bradford bravado.

A non-descript car park; three young British Pakistani men from a Bradford Modified Car Club, and their three pride-and-joy cars, rev resoundingly into the space. Casper Ahmed, Mohammad Ali Yunis and Sohail Hussain each undoubtedly represent a personality everyone who’s Asian is familiar with: the ‘techy’ wise guy, the Sufi turbo bro and the bragging jack-the-lad. The portraits of these regular British Asian men challenge the precepts of rising islamophobia.

Perhaps you have prejudices when you see them walk on, or perhaps you expect stereotypes; but this show at once confirms, explains and shatters them all when the performers reveal their own daily prejudices and discriminations suffered, punctuated by narrations of the racist systems working against them – almost Knight Rider-style – by the parked cars themselves.

“Start from scratch, we build it all back” is the resonating chant by the performers that incapsulates the heart and soul of Bradford, and through it, the youth. It’s impressive and commendable to see these first-time performers from the community owning their narratives in a car park, the external sounds of throttling cars and city life extending the soundscape of the show. In places, the performances do verge on one-dimensional, but there are moments of real passion and truthfulness when the performers let themselves go and portray their real-life camaraderie, expressing their love of pistons and prayer in this accomplished production.

Name of Production: Peaceophobia

Year of Production: 2021

Venue: Oastler Car Park

Cast: Mohammad Ali Yunis, Casper Ahmed, Sohail Hussain

Director: Evie Manning, Iram Rehman, Sajidah Shabir, Rosema Nawaz, Mariyah Kayat, Madeyah Khan, Maleehah Hussain

Writer: Zia Ahmed, Mohammad Ali Yunis, Casper Ahmed, Sohail Hussain

Design: Rosie Elnile

Sound Design & Composer: Wojtek Rusin

Producers/Production Company: Common Wealth, Fuel Theatre, Speakers’ Corner

| Check out more from Common Wealth| See more from Fuel Theatre | Speakers’ Corner | Bradford Modified Club |

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