“He grew up to be a man whose sighs and slumps replaced sentences. Is that gonna be me?”
Days after his father’s passing, English teacher Yusuf discovers a dusty mixtape that changes everything he knew about a man who barely spoke.
Turns out, Mustafa spent the 90s rapping about pretty girls and Kilburn life, plotting dreams of superstardom with his best friend Omar. How did this passionate wordsmith become a silent statue?
Yusuf’s mourning is overtaken by a journey into the past. Threaded together by Omar’s thumping beats and his father’s bars, Yusuf uncovers secrets that turn his world upside-down.
Witty, honest, and deeply moving, Statues is a lyrical love letter to the original code switchers, exploring the impact of loss, and what you can gain from it. Written and performed by award-winning playwright Azan Ahmed (Deen & Dunya, The Father and the Assassin).
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Adam Jefferys (he/him) is a Lighting Designer and Production Manager from Essex. Previously, he was the Technical Manager of the New Diorama Theatre.
Recent work includes: Foreverland (Southwark Playhouse); Playfight (Summerhall Festival); I Love You, Now What? (Park); The End, Communion, My Father’s Fable, Elephant (all Bush); The Bleeding Tree, Under The Kundè Tree (both Southwark); The Great Privation (Theatre503); The Olive Boy (UK Tour); Murder In The Dark (UK Tour); It Is I, Seagull (UK Tour); Soon, Pilot (both Summerhall); Philosophy of The World (Cambridge Junction); After The Act, War & Culture (both New Diorama); Project Dictator (New Diorama & Edinburgh); Jekyll and Hyde (Derby); Everything Has Changed (Tour & Edinburgh); Dorian (Reading Rep).
For more of Adam’s work please visit his website: adamjefferys.com
Azan Ahmed (he/him) is an award-winning actor, poet & playwright.
As an actor, recent credits include: We Go Again (BBC Three); 10 Nights (Omnibus & tour); Van der Valk (ITV); The Father and the Assassin (National); Count Abdulla (ITVX) and The Tempest (Globe).
His debut play Daytime Deewane (Half Moon & tour) won the 2023 Offie Award for Best Writing. He is currently being mentored by Roy Williams on the Hampstead Theatre INSPIRE cohort. Azan is an alumnus of Apples and Snakes Writing Room, Almeida Young Company & Bush Young Company. He also produces Deen & Dunya.
Cara Evans (they/she) is a London-based performance designer. Cara graduated in Design for Stage from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and worked as a reader at the Royal Court.
Theatre includes: as Designer or Co-Designer, Feral Monster (National Wales); Sleepova (Bush); Dear Young Monster (Bristol Old Vic Studio); The Living Newspaper (Royal Court); Sirens (Mercury Colchester Studio); Get Dressed! (Unicorn); Queer Upstairs (Royal Court); Body Show (Soho); Sylvia (English Frankfurt); It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure (National Tour); Ugly Sisters (New Diorama); SK Shlomo: Breathe (Royal Albert Hall); F**king Men (Waterloo East); The Beach House (Park ); Love Bomb (National Youth); Baba Joon (Swansea Grand Studio); Bright Half Life (King’s Head); The Misandrist (Arcola); Instructions for A Teenage Armageddon (Southwark Playhouse); Blanket Ban (New Diorama, UnTapped); A Different Class (Queen’s Hornchurch); as Associate Designer for Chloe Lamford, Teenage Dick (Donmar School’s Tour).
Esme Allman is a director, theatre-maker, facilitator and poet from South London. She built her theatre practice in a participatory context at the Young Vic, Clean Break and Cardboard Citizens. She directed the R&D of Statues by Azan Ahmed (Pit Theatre, Barbican) as part of Barbican Open Labs (2022). She also directed To The People by John Dinneen and Alex Urwin (April 2022). She has been an assistant director for OUT by Ray Young (touring Spring 2024), Cinderella by Danusia Samal (Brixton House, December 2023), Alice in Wonderland (RADA Vanbrugh Theatre, August 2023) and Run It Back (Talawa Theatre and Hackney Showroom 2018). Previous theatres and creative organisations she has worked with include Arts Ed, the Barbican Centre, Brixton House, Fevered Sleep, Hammersmith Lyric Theatre, Kings Theatre, Royal Stratford East, Sydenham Arts, and the Robert Bosch Foundation in Berlin.
Eve Allin (she/her) is a producer for theatre. She is Executive Producer at Broccoli Arts, a production company making work for/by/about lesbian, bisexual and queer people who experience misogyny.
Broccoli productions include: Tender, This Might Not Be It (both Bush ); Salty Irina (Paines Plough Roundabout, Summerhall); Before I Was a Bear (Soho). Eve was Associate Producer at Soho Theatre for; Super High Resolution and Boys on the Verge of Tears. Independently, she is the producer for internationally award-winning artists Civilisation by Jaz Woodcock-Stewart; work.txt by Nathan Ellis and WRESTLELADSWRESTLE by Jennifer Jackson . Eve is a Stage One supported producer.
Hamza Ali (he/him) is an interdisciplinary movement artist. He directs, coaches, facilitates, and performs movement for performance.
Movement direction credits include: 10 Nights (UK Tour), Duck (Pleasance / Arcola ), Going For Gold (Chelsea), For One More Day to Live (Peckham), Daytime Deewane (Half Moon ). He was Resident Director for Dante or Die’s Kiss Marry Kill (UK Tour). Original productions including: Bhai (The Place) and 1518 (Greenside). He has facilitated for theatres including LUNG and Kiln and has taught at the National Youth Theatre where he is an associate artist. He is currently a resident artist at artsdepot. A recipient of the Embassy Scholarship, he graduated with an MA in Movement from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where he directs movement as a visiting professional.
Lois Sime (she/her) trained in Stage Management as Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Previous credits include: The Last Word (Marylebone); For Tonight (Adelphi); Brassed Off (Aberystwyth Arts Centre); You Bury Me (Paines Plough); Mother Goose (Hackney Empire).
A youth & community facilitator, Maryam Shaharuddin (she/her) co-creates theatre with participants in the UK and Malaysia.
She has delivered workshops & performances at a range of organisations including Angel Shed, Kiln, Almeida, Bush, PositivelyUK, Company Three and The National Theatre. She is also an Associate Artist at Coney, focusing on a practice of playful activism with communities. Her assistant directing credits include Daytime Deewane (Half Moon) and Duck (Arcola). She has worked as an engagement producer for This Might Not Be It and Statues (Bush ). She is also currently a mentor for Tamasha’s Creative Wellbeing Lab, sharing her practice in arts and health. Joy and play are at the heart of her practice in creating inclusive, socially engaged theatre. Maryam is especially passionate about making work that celebrates and elevates the stories of Muslim Women.
Rachel Sampley (she/her) is a London-based lighting and video designer.
Her previous work includes Barrier(s) (The National); Perfect Show for Rachel (The Barbican); The Great Gatsby (Immersive Everywhere); The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (The Watermill ); Bossy (Zoo Co; Southbank Centre); Cassie and the Lights (59E59, Off Broadway, NY); Opal Fruits (Bristol Old Vic, Pleasance Edinburgh) (Immersive LDN: Seoul, Korea: Theatre Clwyd); Wreckage (Turbine); and Breeding (King’s Head – Offie nominated for Lighting Design}
She has an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Two Magpies Productions specialises in Muslim storytelling and creating opportunities for underrepresented communities in the arts. We champion creative practitioners who identify as Muslim, and produce bold and engaging stories that showcase the unlimited range and breadth of what it is to be Muslim. Our radical values are at the heart of everything we do, and we believe culture is one part of achieving revolutionary change in a society that is structurally anti-Muslim.
