By Peter Maddern
Each year Holden Street Theatre’s Martha Lott scours the Edinburgh Fringe with a view of bringing two top theatre shows to Adelaide for our summer’s fest at the HST. Mush and Me is one of those and certainly it is an excellent choice.
Mush (Jaz Deol) and Gabby (Daniella Isaacs) are two twenty somethings who meet in the call centre where they work. Quickly they see the merits in each other and while they explore the possibilities of that relationship the issues of religion and culture (or perhaps it is cultural norms) are, if not front and centre, then always being navigated. Mush is a Muslim whose family fled their homeland to England to escape Israeli terror; Gabby is Jewish and both have parents for whom inter-racial marriage or relationships are not much encouraged.
Both Deol and Isaacs deliver compelling performances; he more laid back but with an ingrained set of religious based principles that modify his good humour, she the more aggressive go getter who’s independence is fettered by her love of family, particularly her ailing father. The attraction and conflict between them seems very real and modern as both actors make their way through the various stages of the debates that follow.
Given the currently increasing discussion about the role of the Muslim community in this country, this angst is very apt and Mush and Me is clear about how a modern cosmopolitan country needs to accept and respect in equal measure differing perspectives of God and the world around them.
Kryztoff Rating 3.5K
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