Productions

Mustafa

by Naylah Ahmed

March - April 2012

London | UK Tour

A vivid and compelling thriller about belief and retribution.

Mustafa is in prison for the death of a teenage boy during an exorcism. Racked with guilt at the loss of an innocent life and isolated in a world where his beliefs are constantly challenged, he tries to avoid trouble. But when prisoners who taunt him suffer mysterious injuries and prison officers start behaving strangely, Mustafa starts to think the evil djinn he tried to banish from the young victim’s body is still with him and he must face it once more…

This production asked, is Mustafa the brutal killer or a brave innocent man who risked his life to deliver the teenager from a dangerous being?

Mustafa was nominated for 4 Offies in 2012’s Off West End Theatre Awards.

Writer Naylah Ahmed

Naylah is an established writer for theatre, radio and TV. Prior to her playwriting and screenwriting career she was a radio drama producer with extensive experience of developing writers, ideas and story. She was the first Development Producer for BBC Radio Drama Birmingham and founding Script Editor on the award winning soap SILVER STREET (BBC […]

About the writer
About The Play

Throughout the eighties, we spent many Eid nights during family get together huddled in a room listening to djinn stories that kept us deliciously scared but that we heard, essentially, as stories, fiction.  As I got older I started thinking about where these stories began and realised when they were first recounted, miles away in Pakistan, they were told as accounts of something that had really happened. So why didn’t we see them that way, what had changed? There are so many ways of exploring this rich subject matter, but the transition of account to a story is what first sparked the idea for what finally came to be Mustafa.
Naylah Ahmed

A compelling and engaging production, delicately directed by Janet Steel of this poignantly profound and insightful piece..

What's On Stage

It has a metaphorical dimension with a feared but well-meaning Muslim trapped inside a grim white compound – Islamophobia in a nutshell…
As tightly structured as the bars on Colin Falconer’s brooding set, both play and production deliver a good few cold shivers

Time Out

A tantalising way of exploring perceptions of (and prejudices towards) ‘otherness’.  Janet Steel’s tense production… full of vividly observed performances

Metro

With a stunning set…. we feel the ghosts of the other characters all around in a chilling and engrossing piece of work which brought a brand new theatre space to life

Yorkshire Post

Dark and unsettling, this compelling thriller is expertly written, and takes ghost stories to another level.

whatsonlive.co.uk
Venues

London

Soho Theatre
21 Dean Street  London  W1D 3NE

7 – 24 March 2012 – 7.15pm

Matinees Sat 17 & 24 3.30pm

Tour

Plymouth, Bradford, Birmingham, and Manchester

Cast | Creatives | Crew

Cast and Crew

Cast
Ryan Early, Munir Khairdin, Paul McCleary and Gary Pillai
Director
Janet Steel
Designer
Colin Falconer
Lighting
Tim Mitchell
Music
Arun Ghosh
Stage Illusionist
Richard Pinner
Stage Manager
Jessica Thanki
Assistant Stage Manager
Phillip Richardson
Dramaturg
Caroline Jester
Casting Director
Alison Solomon

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