Review of ’10 Nights’: “Dramatic fasting”

Riverside Studios welcomes the London return of Shahid Iqbal Khan’s spiritual play – exploring the journey of a young man reconnecting with his religion, as he tries to heal the scars from a horrible past. Guillermo Nazara shares his views on the show, to let us if this soulful story of grievance and self-improvement is truly Jannah onstage.

To some, religion is the opium to control the masses. To others, it’s the pathway to genuine happiness and personal fulfillment. I must confess (no pun intended) that I’ve never been a fan of organized creeds. I can believe in spirituality (especially, ever since I sold my soul), but I think that, when it comes to something as intimate and unique as someone’s faith, there can be guidance, but never imposed rules.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the point in Shahid Iqbal Khan’s monological play, which breaks the dawn of 2025 with its return to the London scene, following its original 2021 run at the Bush Theatre. The premise is quite simple: a young, somehow problematic man seen by everyone around him as a lost cause. He knows that he’s more than that – and that he can do better to. And as such, he’s determined to prove his worth – and everyone else wrong.

Compelled to abide by the Ramadan tradition of itikaf, he will undergo 10 days and nights of prayer and fasting. No more food than the one that feeds his soul. No other activity that the one that brings him closer to God. It’s a tough journey – but one that he must take either way; because that’s his only chance to get the forgiveness he’s never been able to give himself.

There’s no question about the viability of its themes. Regardless of what your views on religion are, a plot involving the existential discord of the human heart is always a gripping starting point. The problem is that there’s no trajectory to go through ever since. Other than how he struggles to follow his vow, there’s very little substance to scoop from what, in the end, feels like a rather plain exploration of an otherwise remarkably promising subject.

There’s a lack of wit hovering all through the script’s delivery – which, added to the increasing shallowness of its approach, prevents the piece from appealing to the viewer; let alone, keeping them engaged through its, sadly, rather uninviting and almost motionless jaunt. It’s not a matter of how much exposition and conflict should have been included – it’s about how each of them should have been dealt with, grasping its topic with more sharpness and pungency, instead of the banal, empty grasp it continuously flaunts.

With an acceptable, though not too memorable performance by Adeel Ali, 10 Nights is a crucible of good intentions with extreme dramatic potential – but none of them are turned into a tangible reality, as despite being able to provide a microphone and speaker to his speech, the author forgets to endow it with a voice.

With many elements still missing to make of it an experience at least half as meaningful and transcendent as its protagonist’s, the show is in need of further rewrites before even finding the point it tries to make – which though anyway introduced, is handled in too basic manner to bring any significance. It’s an emotional ride dealing with the purification of our immaterial selves – but in order to offer that truth to the audience, it needs to undergo a similar process of inner refinement.

All pictures credit to Rishi Rai.

10 Nights plays at London’s Riverside Studios until 26 January before going on tour across the country. Tickets for the London run are available on the following link.

By Guillermo Nazara