The Wit and the Wisdom.

Last night I witnessed "Joseph Nawaz...in Conversation" at the Strand, in Northern Ireland's fashionable East Belfast. There were commanding views of Cave Hill and the local UUP office from the studio, as wan evening sunlight filtered through the bay window, falling onto Nawaz so gently he barely seemed to notice it. But he was otherwise engaged. He has been writing a new show, and he was here to take us into that world, briefly, like the fat, pale tourists we are. The story follows on from the success of Fake ID, his kunstleroman about growing up as a Muslim in a country where warring Christian tribes were the only game in town. 

The next show, not quite this show, will lead on from where Fake ID stopped. Five Days sees Joe and his family traveling to Pakistan to settle their father's estate after his murder. It's an astonishing story and Nawaz read several extracts from the play - sometimes on mic, sometimes not - and was his usual ebullient, if never actually relaxed self.   

I think his entire outfit was new. It's nice to see someone make an effort. 

I didn't know what this show was going to be. Was it going to be readings from the new work, or a version of the finished play? Or perhaps an evening glutting on the wit and the wisdom of Joe Nawaz, a laugh a line with the maestro of mirth. And that's when he gets you - suddenly you're feeling things too. You're blinded by tears of laughter as you stagger through a mine-field, and emotional depth charges going off all over the shop. Joe Nawaz has once again grabbed you by the heart. It's probably a police matter. There is no emotional social distancing with him. 

In fact there were some readings, a bit of The World According To Joe, plus the story of how the play was born. Also on stage (there was no stage, something that clearly irked Nawaz ) was theatre-maker Finn Kennedy, who reached out to Joe after Black Lives Matter blew up, and asked him how she could help. I can imagine Joe's confusion - he's not used to people being nice to him. But Finn was on the level, and turns out to have been exactly what he needed, given she wasn't prepared to take any of his bullshit. She's teasing the story out of him with a whip and a chair, and he is responding - some of the writing in the extracts we heard was very good indeed. This is going to be a tremendous piece of work when its finished: ambitious, interested, funny, angry and above all timely. And I firmly believe it will be finished. Finn is tenacious. 

He needs to stop heckling himself. He needs to calm down a bit. He certainly didn't need the microphone - he is blessed with a voice that carries, sometimes into international waters. He has been known to confuse Beluga whales. But I'm certain the performance will come. He has a team around him now. He is being nurtured. Will success spoil Joe Nawaz? Impossible. He's pre-spoilt. 

There was some classic Nawazian mouth-running. At various points he claimed to hate the theatre, the Arts Council, the very idea of writing or working with people who might be able to help his vision. It was very funny, especially the aghast look on Finn's face at each of these off-script utterances. Joe's approach is blanket disapproval, and if you prove him wrong then he is genuinely delighted not to have to hate you. It must be a constant effort. But he had only good things to say about his new theatre chums. Against his every expectation they were all professional, pleasant, hard-working, and full of ideas. Certainties shattered everywhere. Who is he going to hate now? I'll send him this blog. That'll do it.