MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
Stuck on a roundabout
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
(L to R) Arian Nik as Samir, Shazia Nicholls as Faiza) Sabrina Sandhu as Harleen
[Richard Lakos] 
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
Speed
Holloway Theatre
A STAGGERING 1.5 million drivers attend retraining courses every year in the UK, making this widespread educational experience an ideal vehicle for dramatic exploration. Enter Mohamed-Zain Dada’s Speed, where three British-Pakistani motorists find themselves inducted into the DVLA’s new pilot scheme, the Rehabilitating and Unlearning National Driving Initiative or RUNDI for short.
Three drivers, all with nine points on their licence, find themselves in the volatile hands of facilitator Abz (Nikesh Patel). Faiza (Shazia Nicholls) is a well-to-do Surrey business lady; Samir (Arian Nik), a laddish delivery driver from H-Town (Harehills) in Leeds and Harleen (Sabrina Sandhu), a Brummie nurse whose heavy workload is taking its toll.
Things get off to a breakneck, hilarious start as the contrasting course mates are introduced to the personality awareness model, the Johari Window – definitely not “the Jihadi window” the spunky Samir deliberately mistakes it for. Abz struggles to keep things on the straight and narrow as the laughs continue to flow and tumbling revelations begin to take a darker edge.
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