Review: The Bridge, Bush Theatre

From the very beginning, there is a twinkle in Alaa Shehada’s eye. This twinkle is a prelude to the comedic genius he unfolds over the course of the 80-minute production. He carefully curates the flow of the piece between the script and improvisational moments with a more stand-up comedy feeling. Shehada has a natural instinct for crowd-work that is a joy to watch and participate in, and his physical comedy is charming. 

A great proportion of the production relies on the brilliance of Shehada’s comic timing, and it is the careful flips from the levity, into an abject fear and prospect of looming tragedy that makes this play so consistently compelling. 

The thematic premise of the play is beautiful – the celebration of joy and life and culturally specific humour as an act of personal resistance against the dark shadow cast by Israel’s occupation, form an ethos of a human joy that cannot be quelled even amongst the greatest of challenges. The Bridge sees the pain of Palestine, shares its story, and reminds us of the resilience in a joy grown from solidarity. 

Lily Dawford’s lighting design is fluid and dynamic, able to illustrate a lot emotionally with paired back tonal gestures. Blue lighting, onstage, is very often freedom or water or sky, or even a night club, but somehow what was actually quite a warm toned blue managed to become a symbol of absolute oppression and coldness. The tension created by even the subtlest allusions to Israel, often leaving the worst parts or the particulars unsaid, cultivates a pervasive subtext of fear that so effectively manages to share space with the comedic brilliance of the piece. 

Sam Beale’s direction, in many places, is precise and well done, but the play as a whole needs a slightly more ruthless hand to cut down on some of the dramaturgical fat that hangs off the end of some scenes: moments run on too long, Shehada sometimes runs a little too far with jokes, especially scripted ones, and the story-telling can feel lost slightly at times. With a more rigorous approach to editing, both in the script and on-stage, this play has the potential to be truly flawless.  

For those keeping up with the programming at Bush Theatre, they are excellent at staging stories steeped in other cultures, often with powerful political messaging, but as The Bridge began, it became clear that whilst productions at this theatre are beautifully culturally diverse, there is a certain dramaturgical monotony emerging. The Bridge is structured and performed in a very similar way to The Darkling, for example, where one actor narrates an entire story, beginning as a child in happier days than those that unfold throughout the various side characters from which the actor switches back and forth. This is not a criticism on either show individually, but does unfortunately frame The Bridge as an iteration of a format, rather than an independently devised production (which, actually, it is). 

This general programming gripe is certainly not a dealbreaker for The Bridge, but it would be nice if it, and other shows at Bush, were able to stand stylistically on their own two feet, rather than feeling stale in the context of the plays happening before and afterwards. 

The realism, the urgency, the dream of freedom (manifest through the dreams of an airport, which in itself is a rich image for both poignancy and comedy throughout), make The Bridge a production that demands to be seen, an absolute must in a world where both engaging with the oppression experienced around the world, and retaining our joy and hope for a better future are so, so important. 

Written by Alaa Shehada
Co-Written and directed by Sam Beale
Movement Director: Micaela Miranda
Composed & Sound Design by Julius Pollux Rothlaender
Lighting Design by Lily Dawford
Produced by Charlotte Knowles for Palestine Comedy Club (PalCom)

The Bridge is playing at The Bush until Wednesday 11 November.