Review: DIZZY, Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse

Photo credit: Chris Saunders

The second show kicking off Sheffield Theatres’ new season is Dizzy. This is the fourth in a series of collaborations with Theatre Centre – their shows spend some of the week visiting schools and the other part of the week in traditional theatres. Dizzy centres around two characters, Stax and Qamar, and their different ways of handling grief.

Mohamed-zain Dada’s writing is fast paced and engaging but often doesn’t signpost what location we’re in well enough. It can take a few minutes before you realise whether the scene is taking place by a memorial or a Halfords or somewhere else. Rob Watt’s direction balances naturalism with the abstract well but, compared to previous Theatre Centre shows, may be a little too abstract at times for the intended audience of school children to fully grasp what’s happening.

Mwen’s sound design and soundscape composition is very good, particularly when creating the scenes where Qamar gets lost in her own head. Hannah Sibai’s set is very simple, as it needs to be to fit into school halls, but Jess Brigham’s lighting design could have done a little more to differentiate between locations in the absence of physical set pieces.

Sera Mustafa and Brendan Barclay both give strong performances as Qamar and Stax respectively. Their rapport is excellent, from the initial conflict and uncertainty between the characters, to them eventually starting to become friends. Both have solid comic timing and are quite believable playing the ages of their characters; Mustafa being a teenager and Barclay playing a bit older.

Dizzy is an entertaining hour at the theatre. It doesn’t necessarily feel as emotionally hard hitting as some previous Theatre Centre productions that have been performed at Sheffield Theatres, but it still explores interesting and relevant themes.

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Jacob Bush

Dizzy plays at Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse until 12 October, with further info here.