Camdenwalla review – one long night of fear and defiance in 90s London

. UK edition

Nusrath Tapadar (Alima) holding a clipboard speaks with a man on the phone, Bhasker Patel (Muhammad) , at a cluttered desk in an office
Oscillating emotions … Nusrath Tapadar (Alima) and Bhasker Patel (Muhammad) in Camdenwalla. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Jonny Khan’s debut play, about an uncle and niece manning phones at a rescue service during racist attacks, is well acted yet lacks tension

This theatre’s address was once the headquarters of the Camden Monitoring Project, a volunteer-run organisation established to provide safe transport home for South Asian restaurant workers at a time of rampant racist attacks. Built on four years of research with the local Bengali community, actor Jonny Khan’s debut play turns that chapter of history into a fictional two-hander, which unfolds on a single evening in 1994.

Muhammad (Bhasker Patel) is a Bengali Londoner who spends his nights coordinating the understaffed rescue service. He and his mature-beyond-her-years teenage niece Alima (Nusrath Tapadar) have barricaded themselves into his dingy office where the phone won’t stop ringing. The murder of a white teenager has prompted a slew of verbal and physical attacks. Frightened callers plead for assistance on Muhammad’s helpline, knowing the police have turned a blind eye.

But despite the urgency of this story, and the pertinence of the venue, the play lacks tension. Its setup brings to mind the gut-wrenching film The Voice of Hind Rajab, in which increasingly strained Palestinian Red Crescent call operators attempt to provide safe passage under impossible circumstances. However, in Khan’s play, the plight of the offstage characters gets buried beneath the focus on Muhammad and Alima’s relationship, and an attempt to make them funny.

Their squabbling over which radio station to listen to, or how many sugars to add to a cup of tea, reveals a closeness that carries more meaning as the narrative unfolds. But these scenes also distract from the snatches of stories phoned in from the streets, for which Tapadar breaks character to deliver in Bengali. Similarly, Muhammad’s rejected funding applications deserve more than a passing comment.

Still, Patel and Tapadar navigate the oscillating emotions deftly. And under Khan’s own direction, a sense of trepidation is kindled with the help of Sarah Sayeed’s sound design carrying thuds from outside into their sanctuary.

It could do with some refocusing but in the aftermath of the Belfast riots, which also saw a targeting of minority groups, it seems especially important to bear witness to this story, which says as much about the present as the past.

• At Camden People’s theatre, London, until 4 July