Crush by Hadsan Mohamud – ★★★★☆
Having a crush can make you feel like you are going slightly insane. In your teenage years, the two are basically synonymous. A story about being a teenager, spending a dedicated amount of your time in a mental health facility and having a crush simultaneously feels like it should be classified as horror. Somehow though, Hadsan Mohamud takes this, and turns it into a charming, witty and heartwarming rom-com. Crush follows Najma (Mohamud) and Zakariya (Mohamed Hashi), two British-Somali teens navigating adolescence while confronting eating disorders that impact every aspect of their lives, and hearts that beat reluctantly for each other.
Najma is like a firework; a bright light, explosive with a razor sharp tongue and a heart she wears on her knuckles like a four finger ring. She has an awkward grace that makes her irresistible to Zakariya, who beside Najma seems like still and deep waters. A poet (and occasional gaslighter) Zakariya has a wit and coolness that excites and frustrates Najma. It’s love at first sight when they meet in the waiting room of a clinic for teenagers with mental health disorders.
In an article by Haaniyah Awale Angus for Vogue magazine, she notes that Crush is more than just a rom-com, and that beneath its romantic surface “it’s a tool to expand understanding of disordered eating and how it presents differently across backgrounds”. Angus goes on to detail how working with the Somali Mental Health Network, and drawing from her own experience as a British-Somali Muslim who had an eating disorder, Mohamud’s play is political and public service theatre in action. It not only is a tender love story about finding solace in a familiar face, it offers a place to feel safe, seen and to display what healing can look like; non-linear, courageous, messy and something made easier when you have someone fighting your corner.
You can tell that Mohamud knows her character inside out, bringing quirks and flair to a character that feels reminiscent of Devi Vishwakumar from Never Have I Ever, and Lara-Jean Covey from To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. Along with Hashi, the growing pains of the budding romance between the two characters elicits strong reactions from the audience. Equally strong is the response to the play’s heavier themes, particularly dealing with grief, stigma stemming from culture and tradition and fear of the future. Both characters tentatively, but at all times brave, pursue lives that fulfill them, and exist outside of the confines of the clinic they feel stuck in.
There are little pockets of Crush that feel deeply Somali, although they are few. For the most part, it feels like a story that could be about two teens from any background, and it would have been nice to see more of what makes the British-Somali experience so distinct. In the moments she does Mohamud makes sure to remind us that Najma and Zakariya are products of a culture that make them who they are - expressive and effervescent, resilient and altogether a joy to watch.
At Riverside Studios, the preview of Mohamud’ s debut play feels like a small taste of will be an incredible run, for a beautiful and life-affirming story that teases and embraces connection and companionship that you can find in the most unexpected places.
★★★★☆
By Melody Adebisi