Culture

Written by Alex Buzo, Directed by Kathryn Hurst, Staring Jimmy Currin and Thabo Tshuma. 3.5/5.


Racism, the Polish-American Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel suggests, “is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.” Norm and Ahmed proves that, in Buzo’s own words, one must “never underestimate the power of difference.”
 
Ahmed is educated and insightful (he is studying Arts at University) and speaks the “Queen’s English” better than does Norm. Norm is living the “Australian dream” – or is he? - and is blind to the failures of the Australian Government, although he does have a thing or two to say about the way the Egyptians run their country.
 
Norm and Ahmed was beautifully dark, in content, spirit and appearance. Currin, as Norm, was suitably rugged and suspect. Tshuma, as Ahmed, was duly prim and suspect. Norm and Ahmed moved in and out of the shadows, both literal and metaphorical, as their conversation moved from football to the ANZACS to dignitaries being shat on by a flock of doves. As the moonlight and streetlights danced over the barren and harsh set, the actors’ expressions appeared and disappeared, lit at intervals by a burst of flame from a lighter or match. The scent of the matches drifted over the audience and the puffs of smoke dispersed into the heavens as late one night Norm met Ahmed and Ahmed meet a foe.
 
Which one was going to commit an act of hatred and passion? Was anyone going to commit one at all?  Why were we brought here to watch this meeting, late at night, between two men from very different sides of the track?
 
Hurst’s direction honoured the space, honoured her actors and honoured all of those who have fallen victim to the small-minded “ratbags” of this world. Written in 1968, Norm and Ahmed remains poignantly and astoundingly relevant in this contemporary post 9/11 world, where people seem to increasingly fear those of different skin colours. This is a play about morality, history, culture and identity, and Hurst captured the comedy and malice of this meeting between two strangers, one white and one black, late one night on a nameless city street.