'Til Jihad Do Us Part

One artistic response to radical Islam you hardly ever see is comedy. So the gently sardonic humour of Shai Hussein's play, 'Til Jihad Do Us Part, was a joy. Meena is a DJ, nearly 30 and still single. Her mother is growing increasingly desperate, her stance shifting from no boyfriends in the house to "Muslims, Christians, Jews OK, but no pagans". When she meets a handsome stranger, Meena resolves to tell him everything. Played by Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi, Meena is a wonderful creation, "pretty whorish for a Muslim girl" as she explains, but perfectly capturing the plight of young Pakistanis caught between two cultures. "Nine sexual partners? A bit higher than I was expecting," gulps her fiancé. "No, nine boyfriends. I've had a few more sexual partners." It turns out the handsome stranger is only after a visa, and when Meena checks him out online she suspects he may be a terrorist. "How can you trust a man without a Facebook profile?" Smitten however, she agrees to a wedding service, even though as she puts it, "the verses of the Koran made about as much sense to me as the storylines of Lost".

Don't let the title put you off. Shai Hussain's play is comic, scary, frank. It's about Meena, a lapsed Muslim, nearly 30 and not yet married. She drinks, she DJs, she's the despair of her mother and her younger, about-to-be-married sister. Then she meets Sarwar, a handsome, charming, intelligent chef. They're attracted, get engaged. She's been honest with him but he hasn't told her much in return. He dodges every personal question, doesn't have a visa or even a Facebook profile. What's he hiding? Stay to the end. It's surprising.