Review: NOOR by Azma Dar, Presented by Kali Theatre, Southwark Playhouse until 26 Nov

‘The direction and design make the play fascinating’ ★★★★

World War 2 produced so many remarkable heroes that we might be forgiven for not knowing who all of them are. It’s hard not to think, though, that the bravery and terrible death of Noor Inayat Khan are comparatively unknown both because she was a woman and a woman of colour in a Britain much whiter than it is today. Azma Dar’s play celebrates her bravery as an undercover agent in occupied France and also her short life as a remarkable person achieving immense things against many odds.

The play’s inventively staged with a traverse stage cleverly designed to allow rapid changes of location, time and costume as it takes a girl dreaming of being a writer through recruitment, training, the glamour and danger of spying and the almost inevitable eventual capture and death at a time when an agent was lucky to last six weeks.

The theatricality, in the best sense of the word, of Poonam Brah’s direction and Helen Croyston’s design make the play fascinating with Annice Bopari’s performance lighting Noor’s character with naivety, optimism, courage and competence – above all with sheer joy in the excitement of living her life.

The concentration on Noor’s story does slightly leave the other characters as props to support her more than fully rounded characters. Details are sketched in of the spymistress, the crusty training officer, the Bach-loving Nazi, and the performances are uniformly strong and beautifully choreographed on a thin, tricky stage. Only Noor truly develops as a real person, though, albeit one whose vivacity and heroism deserves all the limelight it can get.

There is, too, perhaps, a more televisual than theatrical quality to the writing, not in that its particularly visual, but in providing many short scenes in a variety of locations and in dialogue that usually pretty much conveys entirely what is meant rather than seeking subtext or nuance. Indeed, it is sometimes over-explanatory – we get that one character has betrayed another without needing her to explain it, for example.

But it’s a lengthy show that feels like a short one because the visuals work so well and the actors work like clockwork in a complicated setting. 

NOOR by Azma Dar

Director: Poonam Brah

Presented by Kali Theatre

Southwark Playhouse     3 to 26 November

Box Office: southwarkplayhouse.co.uk /020 7404 0234

Reviewer: David Weir’s plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow) and Better Together (Jack Studio Theatre, London), both award winners.