Nigel is half-white, half-Pakistani. How he longs to be all black. This damaged, defiant hybrid of Ali G and Frank Spencer is 'living the dream' - playing some Xbox, smoking some brown in his own housing association flat. 'I's mental,' he boasts. 'I don't ever have to work ever again.'
Then a terrorist-hunting detective bursts into his life. 'Dope-smoking psycho cops with a licence to kill ain't ever good,' laments Nigel, coerced into going undercover at the local mosque...
Henry Adam's Edinburgh hit combines comic excess with credible characters. He gives Nigel absurd ambitions, a wounded heart, and a patsy stint that shows him life is about more than just hiding.
The script meanders a bit. A fitfully brilliant two hours could be a blissfully good 90 minutes. But Roxanna Silbert's handsome production is pacy and provocative, while leaving us open to the second half's pathos as Nigel bonds with his neighbours - a troubled teen and a testy widow.
Finally, though, it's Fraser Ayres's lead turn that makes this piece fly. Hilarious but full of heart, he shuns caricature as his pipe-cleaner physique bends in response to Nigel's latest woe. Like the show as a whole, he's an inspiring blend of the transgressive and the tender.
Until Oct 4, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square E15, Mon to Sat 7.45pm, £8 to £20. Tel: 020 8534 0310/020 8503 0032. www.stratfordeast.com DLR: Stratford
The People Next Door
