Testing the Echo

Yvonne Arnaud, Guildford 3 / 5 stars
Testing the Echo at Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud theatre
Testing the Echo at Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud theatre

What is Britishness? Is it a constantly changing concept? And can it ever be measured and defined by citizenship tests? These are just some of the questions raised by David Edgar's intriguing kaleidoscopic collage for Out of Joint. Although it could do more to engage emotionally, the piece certainly puts cosy liberal values to the test.

In the early scenes, Edgar explores the multiple motives that drive people to seek British citizenship. Mahmood wants to please his Pakistani father. Ukrainian Tetyana wants to escape a failing marriage. But then Edgar focuses on the painful dilemma of Teresa Banham's Emma: a dedicated ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) teacher accused of discrimination by a Muslim female student.

This is where the play starts to transcend an enlightened civics lesson to engage with a big issue: whether the gap between secular liberalism and passionate Muslim faith can ever be successfully bridged. Emma sees herself as representing tolerance, decency and the joys of open discussion. But, by obliging the Muslim Nasim (Sirine Saba) to describe pictures of a pork-filled British breakfast and by forcing her to attack a student's right to wear the full-length jilbab in school, Emma offends Nasim's beliefs. You could argue that Emma is simply insensitive and Nasim unduly prickly. But behind the play lurks an unanswered question: where is the common ground between two strongly opposed value systems?

The issue is so crucial you wish Edgar had given it far more stage time. What he does is tackle the vexed notion of Britishness from a variety of angles. If there is a grand narrative to our island story, Edgar implies that it lies in the democratic citizens' opposition to tyranny and prejudice - but even that is now under threat. In the play's most telling speech, Emma lists the things that bring people to Britain: the absence of constant surveillance, the fact you cannot be stopped or searched without reason, the freedom of speech. As Emma says: "That's what they come for. The very things our government is trying to take away from us because they're here."

Edgar's play is certainly bursting with ideas. And Matthew Dunster's production is performed with role-swapping gusto by a cast of eight. Edgar has packed too much into one play. But at least he has the courage to acknowledge that Britishness is a constantly fluctuating concept hardly susceptible to computerised tests.

· At the Library Theatre, Manchester from March 11-15. Box office: 0161-236 7110. Then touring.

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