The Wrong Bashir by Zahida Rahemtulla is currently playing at Crow’s Theatre in a production directed by Paolo Santalucia.  The story is set in the Isma’ili community in Toronto and all the families concerned were among those kicked out of Uganda by Idi Amin.  Quite a lot of the story concerns Isma’ili religious institutions and practices about which I am woefully ignorant.  Not knowing doesn’t detract from the experience of seeing the play and I have used circumlocutions below rather than try and figure out the technical terms used in the play

So, Bashir is a student who has yet to find his “path”.  Nominally at least he’s studying philosophy but he seems to spend most of his time hawking “podcasts” on cassette tapes around trendy cafes.  His podcasts are based on a jumbled mixture of Nihilism and Existentialism (didn’t we all have a go at those along with Marxism?).  He’s now living at home again because he’s run out of money.  He has a younger sister and parents who have all the usual aspirations that first generation immigrants have for their kids along with a keen desire to be respected in their own community.  There’s also a grandfather with dementia, his wife and her nosy/gossipy friend.

The fun starts when two members of “the committee” arrive to tell Bashir’s parents that he has been appointed as some kind of very prestigious student religious leader despite not going to prayers or engaging with the religious community in any way.  He could, of course, just refuse but that would devastate his parents; especially since, although it’s supposed to be a secret, everybody already knows.  It’s obvious very early on what has happened but it isn’t formally revealed until the end.  meanwhile all sorts of shenanigans of a largely predictable sort go on.

It’s very much of the inter-generational immigrant family genre but distinctly at the comically absurd end of the spectrum.  Tight direction and some excellent comic acting generate lots of laughs, even if some of the comedy is a bit cringy (and how you relate to Alzheimer’s jokes may also play a part).

There are some excellent performances.  I particularly liked Sharjil Rasool as Bashir and Bren Eastcott as his sister.  They both play much younger characters convincingly.  There’s a sympathetic portrayal of the father by Sugith Varughese.  Vijay Mehta and Parm Soor spark off each other nicely as the committee men trying to find their way out of a whole.  Salim Rahemtulla plays the difficult part of the grandfather most sympathetically.  There’s a sense in which the three adult women characters are all stereotypes but Nimet Kanji, as the mother, Zaittun Esmail as the grandmother and Pamela Mala Sinha as the gossipy Gulzar make the most of what they have to work with.  The set and lighting, by Ken Mackenzie, cleverly allow for some sense of separate spaces.

It’s a first play and like many first plays/novels there are both autobiographical and “coming of age” elements that sometimes feel a bit clichéd but, helped by excellent work from director and cast, it still manages to be a very funny, enjoyable and, occasionally, thought provoking couple of hours of theatre.

The Wrong Bashir runs at Crow’s theatre until June 9th.

Photo credits: Dahlia Katz.