London theatre targets Muslim audiences theatre like never before as it not only hosts a muslim play but also accommodates a muslim audience, something that has never happened before.
That is until poet Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan came onto the scene with a new play offering a love story for the ages. She’s covered all the bases and this play and spectacle as a whole could be groundbreaking.
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is the playwriter and poet from Leeds. Peanut Butter and Blueberries is Suhaiymah’s first full length play and comes with the added pressure of being the first play to target Muslims to the theatre.
Even a prayer space is offered to Muslim worshippers. Kiln Theatre, where the show is running, also hosts alcohol free nights for the non-drinking audience, and as Enoch Powell turns in his grave, IT’S ALREADY SOLD OUT!
Debut play Peanut Butter & Blueberries
In her debut play Peanut Butter & Blueberries, Suhaiymah sets the scene of her love story. Set at a university with two central Muslim characters; Hafsah and Bilal.
The two-person play follows the connection between the students respectively reading Gender Studies and South Asian Studies as they navigate adolescence in London, having moved from Bradford and Birmingham.
Sitting on a park bench, but never touching, Hafsah is taken by Bilal’s choice of sandwich filling, forming the play’s title, and the two grow dear to one another, finding common ground as northerners and as Muslims, as two young people learning one another’s quirks and quietly falling in love.
London theatre targets Muslim audiences like never before
Peanut Butter & Blueberries isn’t just a coming-of-age rom-com though, and explores serious and topical themes; Islamophobia and the government’s Prevent strategy and the negative divisive impact it has on Muslims, war PTSD, domestic violence, class and capitalism.
A modern Muslims love story
He considers doing an accounting degree to make money that will help his struggling single mum with her mortgage and help her get away from his abusive brother. This forms the central tension in the play, not their identity as one might come to expect in a play about Muslims.
It is a modern Muslims love story that explores the connection between the students in the modern day.
Some may quip how no one is struggling with their faith, quite the contrary – they are emboldened and guided by their Islamic principles – Hafsah doesn’t struggle with her hijab, Bilal knows his role as a Muslim man and provider.
This play tells a tender love story between two students
Audiences will see themselves in Hafsah, the Palestine bag-toting independent Muslim woman fighting inter-community misogyny and the world at large. Bilal, sporting a hoodie with a watermelon emblazoned on it, is like so many Muslim men I know; putting on a brave face, making poor decisions, using humour as a defence mechanism.
Suhaiymah uses her creativity to engage the audience
Suhaiymah has made a conscious decision to make audiences feel seen; before the show begins, a nasheed (Islamic ‘music’) fills the theatre, the production begins with Bismillah (in the name of God) with blessings offered to Prophet Muhammed, and crucially, the run time accommodates one of the five Islamic prayers, ending before Maghrib time.
This play invites Muslim audiences from all over the country, some notably for the first time. It’s a welcome change considering that 93% of theatre-goers come from a white background, according to Arts Council England’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion data report for 2021.
The show will be running at Kiln Theatre in Kilburn until 31 August
Peanut Butter & Blueberries is hopeful of setting a trend of having Muslim experiences reflected in theatre (though more need to be commissioned).
This is a crucial phase in Muslim theatre events, if the audiences flock to the show, you will see more being commissioned and at bigger theatres.
Suhaiymah is hopeful and will find if the play will end at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn or if it will get a national tour, perhaps even a global one.
But the appetite for Muslim stories is growing, in all its richness and diversity and crucially at a time where the far-right Islamophobia is targeting Muslims this could be the opportune time to develop cultural diversity in the UK.
