'Riotous and moving': Barry Gardiner reviews 'Insane Asylum Seekers'
Tommy Sim’aan as Laith | Image by: Alex Powell
4 min read
A timely riposte to the government’s immigration rhetoric, Laith Elzubaidi’s one-man play is a riveting portrayal of the British-Iraqi refugee experience
As if in retaliation for the government’s immigration white paper, Laith Elzubaidi’s Insane Asylum Seekers received its world premiere at the Bush Theatre last month.
And, yes – I do mean retaliation!
To call the play “in your face” would be like saying Saddam Hussein had “a naughty side to him”. The stage goes live with footage of Shock and Awe – the opening bombardment of the 2003 Iraq war. Then Laith introduces first himself; a Shi’a Muslim whose refugee parents met in a McDonalds in Wembley at some time in the 1980s. And second, he introduces Iraq; whose potted history he recounts as a series of British invasions going back to the Mesopotamian campaign of 1917.
“So you see,” he says mock-endearingly, “some of your grandfathers probably killed some of my grandfathers,” as if that were enough for us all to go off afterwards and have a drink together in the theatre bar. When talking about the British soldiers, he minces no words – only his audience’s sensitivity – when he says he means what he says, “in the most offensive way possible”.
Laith is played by Tommy Sim’aan. Surely as near perfection a portrayal as any sane actor could manage, of an obsessive-compulsive, tragi-comic, confused neurotic who happens to be the narrator and protagonist of this riveting, riotous, moving admonishment of a play. For 75 minutes Sim’aan delivers a monologue as powerful and witty as any penned by Alan Bennett. He carries the audience through the personal history of one family in order to illuminate the contemporary history of Iraq and of his home here in the UK.
For 75 minutes Sim’aan delivers a monologue as powerful and witty as any penned by Alan Bennett
Laith’s father fled Iraq on the elevation of Saddam in 1979, only to arrive in Iran just as the Iranian revolution brought in Ayatollah Khomeini! And if that were not enough misfortune, he fled Iran only to arrive in Britain just as Margaret Thatcher became prime minister. No wonder the word went round that it was best to abandon any country he chose to settle in. Fulfilling his dream (of working illegally in McDonalds), he meets Laith’s mother who similarly escaped as a refugee. With the awkwardness that only youth and genuine modesty can attest to, his pick-up line is truly cringeworthy. So much so that it cascades down the generations. Don’t be silly – of course I’m not going to reveal what it was, but it is resonances like this that deepen the narrative and flesh out the pathos of refugee life in the UK.
Laith’s parents have their issues. His mum keeps stealing his passport and throwing potato crisps at seagulls, and when the extended family comes to stay, they do mean stay and not visit! His cousin, an 11-year-old with a prodigious moustache, proves as adept at driving cars as he finds his own mother is with a rifle.
Small wonder then that Laith grows up with “issues”. The voices in his head caution him, then command him. “Touch your ear four times or your mother will die in a car crash.” “Inspect your penis, or you will contract schistosomiasis.” (Yes, I had to look it up too.) Love almost saves him where his therapist couldn’t. But displaying your OCD compulsions (and a good deal more) in front of your beloved’s parents the first time you meet them proves what every addict knows: that regression is always waiting just around the corner.
Eventually it is only by touching the heart of the wound – accompanying his mother on her return to Iraq – that his compulsions can be healed, as he acknowledges the PTSD his parents have lived with and the trauma they were forced to flee.
Insane Asylum Seekers? Well, of course. Wouldn’t you be?
Barry Gardiner is Labour MP for Brent West
Insane Asylum Seekers
Written by: Laith Elzubaidi
Directed by: Emily Ling Williams
Venue: Bush Theatre, London W12, until 7 June
