Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Speed by name, speedy by nature. This clever, sparky new play from Mohamed-Zain Dada drives to the heart of the matter with unerring precision, switching lanes often but never losing sight of the eventual destination. It’s funny, original and sharply observed; it’s also delivered with great panache by a four-strong cast in Milli Bhatia’s zippy production.The concept is ingenious: a twist on the strangers-trapped-in-a-lift idea. Here the confined space is a joyless hotel conference room, complete with grey carpet and fish tank, in Tomás Palmer’s wittily accurate set. Three of the strangers, Harleen (an exhausted, resentful nurse), Faiza (a pushy entrepreneur) and Samir (a chirpy, chippy delivery driver), are united by one purpose — to submit to a DVLA speed awareness course and so avoid losing their driving licences. Meanwhile, the fourth, their facilitator Abz (the excellent Nikesh Patel), appears driven by an almost crazed desire to reform them. The three participants are lucky, he tells them, to be selected for this pilot scheme. “By the end of today, we’re going to be transformed as drivers — and as human beings,” he declares, launching into a series of flipcharts, role-play exercises and increasingly manic demands for “meaningful engagement”. Everyone and everything here is trapped — even the fish in the tank and the drinks in the broken vending machine.Dada draws plenty of comedy from recognition: anyone who has ever been at a team-building exercise will be familiar with the characters’ grudging participation. Amusingly too, you can feel a frisson ripple through the audience as they mentally try to answer some of Abz’s theory questions. (Maximum speed on a single carriageway? Braking distances in icy conditions?) And the piece is peppered with smart one-liners. “It’s speed awareness, not speed dating,” snaps Harleen at Samir as he attempts to work his charm.But, stealthily, the role-play reveals what is “underneath the bonnet”, as Abz puts it: the multiple pressures that have erupted, for each of the participants, in a moment of rage or recklessness. Harleen (Sabrina Sandhu) bawled out an overzealous car-park attendant at the end of a long, grim hospital shift. Faiza (Shazia Nicholls) lost it when she spotted a former colleague who had ripped her off. Samir (Arian Nik)’s offence was to speed away from a carful of vicious racists. All four characters are British Asian and Abz insists — to shocked disbelief from the others — that giving in to rage or fear reinforces racist stereotypes. But Abz’s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and eventually he reveals his own harrowing story. We see the potential reasons for road rage — but also the potential cost. We see too how Abz, so determined to prove his Englishness that he serves cucumber sandwiches, has been nearly destroyed by racist abuse.The play takes such a stylistic swerve at this point that it nearly comes off the road. But Bhatia and her cast navigate well the combination of comedy and dread. This is a smart, incisive drama that touches deftly on huge issues — prejudice, inequality, injustice — and on how hard it is, as the slogan on Abz’s favourite mug puts it, to “Keep Calm and Carry On”. ★★★★☆To May 17, bushtheatre.co.uk
