Liberation Squares (NHB Modern Plays)

By Sonali Bhattacharyya

Teenage best friends Sabi and Ruqaya spend their time choreographing dance routines, beat-boxing and hiding from bullies.
But when charismatic social media activist Xara challenges them to speak up about injustice, they find themselves under state surveillance, targeted by the anti-terrorist 'Prevent' programme. What you say, and even what you think, can be viewed very differently, depending on who you are...
Sonali Bhattacharyya's play Liberation Squares is a riotous comedy about sisterhood, freedom of speech, and dissent in the face of institutionalised Islamophobia. It was commissioned and developed by Fifth Word, and first produced in 2024 by Fifth Word and Nottingham Playhouse in association with Brixton House, and directed by Milli Bhatia.
'You've all heard a hundred different versions of what happened. We're here to tell you how it really went down.'
'Real polemical power… builds to an action-adventure heist that would make Ms Marvel proud… bite and purpose' - Guardian

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Apr 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9781788507882

Sonali Bhattacharyya

Sonali Bhattacharyya is an award-winning playwright whose plays include: Liberation Squares (Fifth Word tour, 2024); Chasing Hares (Young Vic, London, 2022); Two Billion Beats (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, 2022; an earlier version was staged by the Orange Tree in 2021 as part of their Inside/Outside season), Megaball (National Theatre Learning), 2066 (Almeida Theatre), The Invisible Boy (Kiln Theatre) and White Open Spaces (Pentabus Theatre). Chasing Hares was the winner of Theatre Uncut's 2021 Political Playwriting Award.

Book preview

Sonali Bhattacharyya

LIBERATION

SQUARES

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Author’s Note

Characters

Liberation Squares

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

‘If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.’

Audre Lorde

Liberation Squares was produced by Fifth Word and Nottingham Playhouse in association with Brixton House. It was first performed at Nottingham Playhouse on 12 April 2024 before touring. The cast was as follows:

Author’s Note

I wanted to write a play about the incredible imagination, inquisitiveness and creativity teenagers have – this is what forges the messy bond between Xara, Ruqaya and Sabi. Right now, we’re witnessing rapidly normalised Islamophobia and racism, including in government policies like the Prevent surveillance programme, and I wanted to explore how this inhibits young people’s confidence, freedom of expression, and even their futures. I wanted to tell this story through the points of view of young people themselves, with all of the joyful spirit of rebellion that entails.

Sonali Bhattacharyya

Characters

SABI, introvert, overthinker, big on details

RUQAYA, extrovert, loose talker, richly imaginative

XARA, charismatic, articulate, confident but lonely

All British Muslim girls in their teens

NADIA, articulate and polished course leader. To be played by any/all of the three actors

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

Prologue

RUQAYA and SABI enter and put together what they need to tell us this story. They write the locations where the story will take place on a whiteboard. RUQAYA beatboxes, establishing a different soundscape for each location.

SABI (direct address). You’ve all heard a hundred different versions of what happened. We’re here to tell you how it really went down… Hard to believe this all started just a few months ago. A lot’s happened in the meantime.

RUQAYA (direct address). Yeah. Like I got sick at beatboxing…

Scene One

A few months ago. RUQAYA and SABI enter in their school uniforms, rapping and dancing, with a carefully choreographed routine. RUQAYA is the more confident of the two and SABI has to sneak looks at her every now and then to make sure she’s getting the moves right. It’s the afternoon and they’re in Ruqaya’s bedroom.

RUQAYA. Ruqaya and Sabi, we’re here to disarm,

SABI. Leave your preconceptions at the door, yeah?

RUQAYA. We’re sounding the alarm.

SABI. Putting forward our case in the public eye.

RUQAYA. Leaving the shadows. We’re ready to fly.

SABI. Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly.

RUQAYA. I’m not a ninja, I’m the harbinger of justice and truth,

No need to be aloof.

SABI slows down. Misses part of the routine.

My eyes are open, my tongue is sharp,

So get with the programme cos we’re hitting the mark.

SABI (breaking out of the routine completely). When did we add those?

RUQAYA. Last night. Was almost asleep. It’s like they came to me in my dreams, yeah? You know Kendrick Lamar comes up with lyrics like that?

SABI. You’re not Kendrick Lamar.

RUQAYA. I’m just saying. I’m literally coming up with this stuff in