SHIELDERS (Traverse Theatre)****

 

By Cal

Link: Shielders | Traverse Theatre  (I had trouble seeing the full video on the Traverse Theatre site, but there’s an option to watch it on youtube and that was fine)

Available until: 31^st January 2020

This play opens with a striking image. Like watching fireworks when you’re on drugs.

Or… so I would imagine.

In many ways, Shielders, by Matilda Ibini, is the play I’ve been wanting to see for most of the year. A play set during the pandemic, where the pandemic is very relevant because it’s happening, but it’s not really the central focus. People wearing masks and social distancing as they talk about something else. People who are shielding, but don’t spend the whole time thinking about the fact they’re shielding. Upsetting as it can be to be shut away from everyone for so long, shielders do have other interests. It’s very possible to be at home all the time and still have fun. Without baking even one loaf of banana bread.

That is the situation in Shielders. Trice is a teacher, lowering her mask to talk to her friend Zira on the phone, but pulling it back up again to speak to a naughty student. She’s expressing concern about another friend, Shahbaz. The pandemic is present and they’re mindful of it (well, mostly), but it’s not their sole focus. Life does go on in other ways. Trice and Zira discuss visiting Shahbaz, but obviously it will be socially-distanced, maybe through a window, because that’s the way things are done now.

Shahbaz himself is shielding due to a health condition. It gets him down. He’s lonely. He struggles to live on just his benefits. But that’s not the only thing in his life. He’s also fascinated by aliens and really wants to make contact. He misses the things and people that are no longer in his life, but he still enjoys and appreciates the things he hasn’t lost.

The set-up is brilliant. The characters are great – all different, but the way they talk to each other makes them believable as friends. It would have been great if the play was longer so we could have got to know the characters even more – Trice and Zira do something stupid and it’s not clear why – but the story grabs your attention, the characters grab your sympathy, and you care what happens to them.

There is also a very interesting conversation about racism. Trice describes an incident of racism – one of those where it’s likely no insult or offence is intended, but the unbelievable ignorance still makes your blood boil. She loathes racism, naturally. All three characters are BAME. But the way Trice and Zira speak to Shahbaz, making assumptions about his physicality based on the country of his birth… is that not racist too? Some would say it can’t be racism because Trice and Zira aren’t white, but I’m not convinced and neither is Shahbaz.

Debbie Hannan directs skilfully, showing us what’s going on even when the characters don’t tell us. There’s also a great scene with an unseen person, which is cleverly set up so it’s believable and understandable that the person isn’t in shot. Even in usual circumstances, this would mean avoiding paying another actor. In the current situation, it also keeps an actor safe.

Michael Ahomka-Lindsay, a favourite of ours from The Show Must Go Online, is excellent as Shahbaz, expressing his feelings eloquently even when Shahbaz can’t find the words. He shows his physical, emotional and perhaps also psychological vulnerabilities, yet he also shows him as a human being with his own personality and interests. He’s relaxed and fun-loving when there’s fun to be had.

Trice is outspoken and snippy, but Danielle Fiamanya also shows the caring nature underneath. Laura Lovemore is brilliantly quirky as Zira. Two people caught up in the horrible situation we’re all facing, but like Shahbaz, and like all of us, they’re also caught up in the complications of life which continue to be important to us whether there’s a pandemic or not.

It will only take you twenty-four minutes to watch Shielders, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll spend even longer thinking about it. And I doubt I’ll stop thinking about it once this review goes up. It’s a fascinating play.