Theatre

It’s frustrating to come out of a play that works so well on stage, and hits all its targets fair and square, but fails to push its ideas beyond the limits of what you already expect, to what might shock or surprise you. At the centre of Anna Ziegler’s Detroit-set play, are, like the title says, Dov and Ali. Dov is a Jewish high-school English teacher, and Ali a precocious Muslim pupil, who always seems to be picking a fight. The two of them clash over William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’; Dov preaching free will (he’s the angsty, agnostic son of a rabbi), while Ali spouts a more dogmatic view of humanity that seems to come direct from Allah, the Koran, his father – or all three.

At first, Ziegler looks like she’s produced a modern response to David Mamet’s famously controversial ‘Oleanna’, using a similar teacher-pupil power struggle to explore religion, instead of gender issues. While Ali and Dov bash out their differences in class, away from school both lives are heading out of control. Dov rejects his shiksa girlfriend Sonya, and Ali tips his father off about his sister Sameh’s disreputable boyfriend. And it is Kiran Landa’s Sameh, decked out in a hijab, who is narrating the story – from somewhere that is definitely not Detroit.
Debut director Alex Sims certainly earns his wings with this assured production, which boasts a striking pair of performances by James Floyd as the intense Ali, and Ben Turner as Dov, with Orla Fitzgerald as Sonya. I just wanted an interval, a gear change, and another act.