Wound Up

Wound Up's critically acclaimed ISIS Tragicomedy is restaged for 2018.

Dean joined the army, Danny joined the Islamic State. Bismillah! is their time together in a basement in northern Iraq as hostage and guard. Exploring the strange new reality of youth in modern day Britain, this unique tragicomedy of our time examines social alienation, radicalisation, disenfranchisement and the rock band Queen.

VAULT Festival 2018 marks Wound Up’s second staging of Matthew Greenhough’s ‘Bismillah! An ISIS Tragicomedy’ which enjoyed a critically acclaimed premiere run at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it was listed for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award. Described as ‘Bold and thought-provoking’ by Mark Lawson in the Guardian, the play was hailed as ‘One of the best shows I have ever seen at the Fringe or anywhere else…a fiercely intelligent, masterfully acted theatrical treat, which prompts tears of both laughter and sympathy’, in a five star review in BroadwayBaby, and as ‘Powerful, hilarious and gripping’ in a four star review for The List. The show was endorsed by the BBC by Nihal Arthanayake on the BBC Asian Network, while also being the subject of a feature in The National, the Middle East’s biggest English language newspaper.

Three years after the show took Edinburgh by storm, the play has lost none of its importance. In fact in the Trump era, post truth world of travel bans and extremism, the show is now more relevant than ever. Updated and developed with support from Theatre Royal Stratford East, Wound Up are thrilled to be bringing back Bismillah! for VAULTS 2018 and backed by a new creative team, including director Jonny Kelly.