REVIEW: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dizzy📍Half Moon Theatre

An erudite look into grief, class, mortality and identity within a society fixated with the idea of leaving a legacy by one of the UK's up-and-coming writers.

By Hamza Jahanzeb | 17 November 2024

Photo credit: Chris Saunders

I'll admit it: I've known smart Muslim women my whole life. From my siblings, to my high-school English teacher and beyond. Therefore, when we encounter the maths-mad protagonist Qamar in M. Zain Dada's latest play, I felt a sense of compulsion to take myself to see this. Given that I only know of Dada's work mainly at adults - given his superb collaboration with Milli Bhatia (which landed them both a 2023 Olivier nomination for the masterpiece that was Blue Mist ) - I was intrigued by this new piece as it was announced that the show will tour UK schools and theatres in Autumn 2024, in a major new co-production between Theatre Centre and Sheffield Theatres.

“You know them Northern Lights you only see in Iceland and Norway? When the particles hit the magnetic poles and BAM. That’s what Graff became to me.
All these mad colours in the sky.”
- From ‘Dizzy’ by M. Zain Dada

The Half Moon Theatre is situated a stone's throw from Limehouse station (the DLR runs quite close to the venue), and it bills itself as a space for Children's shows.  They claim to:

'produce and present professional theatre for children at the Limehouse venue, as well as touring [their] work nationally. [They] also have an extensive Creative Learning programme, giving children and young people from birth to 18 (or 25 for young people with disabilities) an opportunity to participate in a variety of drama and theatre activities in schools, community settings and Half Moon.'