Funny, heartbreaking and urgently relevant…Blue Mist is theatre at its very best ★★★★★
Some productions make you laugh, some make you cry and some make you think. Blue Mist, currently touring the UK and playing at Leeds Playhouse, is one of those rare plays that somehow manages to do all three.
Written by Olivier Award-nominated playwright Mohamed-Zain Dada and directed by Mili Bhatia, this powerful 90-minute drama explores friendship, identity, belonging and the dangerous consequences of false narrative being presented as the truth. It is funny, moving, thought-provoking and, ultimately, deeply human.
Set in a London shisha lounge, the play centres on three close friends: Rashid (Azan Ahmed), Asif (Kashif Ghole) and Jihad (Omar Bynon). For them, the shisha lounge is far more than a place to smoke and socialise. It is a community hub, a safe space, somewhere to relax, laugh, debate and feel connected to their culture.
When aspiring journalist Rashid wins a competition to create a podcast, he initially plans to celebrate the positive role these spaces play in the lives of young South Asian men. However, as producers begin to shape the project, the narrative is gradually forced to change direction. What starts as an exploration of community becomes something far more sensationalised. The podcast begins to present shisha lounges as places of laziness, criminality and failed integration, creating a distorted picture that bears little resemblance to reality.
What follows is a compelling examination of integrity, friendship and the power of storytelling. Dada’s script asks who gets to control a narrative in media within the UK; whose voices are amplified and whose experiences are ignored. It also highlights the devastating impact that a single piece of media can have on ordinary people and entire communities.
The themes feel particularly timely. While Blue Mist is rooted in the experiences of young Muslim men, its message extends far beyond one community. At its heart, this is a play about belonging. About finding places where you feel safe, understood and at home.
As I watched, I found myself reflecting on my own experiences living overseas in Shanghai. Like many expatriates, I often sought out restaurants, bars and communities that reminded me of home. Not because I wanted to reject the culture around me, but because sometimes everyone needs a place where they feel they belong without question. I was never judged for that as an expat. The universal truth of needing a place where you feel you belong is what makes Blue Mist so powerful. You do not need to share the characters’ background to understand exactly why these spaces matter.
As a 40 white woman from Lancashire, there were cultural references and phrases that were unfamiliar to me, but that only added to the experience. Rather than creating barriers, they offered an opportunity to learn. The play invites audiences into a world that may be unfamiliar while never making them feel excluded from it.
One of the production’s greatest strengths is its ability to balance humour with heartbreak. The dialogue between the three friends feels wonderfully authentic. Their banter, teasing and affection create the sense that we are simply eavesdropping on real conversations. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments throughout the evening, many of which emerge naturally from the warmth of the friendships rather than from obvious punchlines. This makes the emotional moments land even harder.
The performances from Ahmed, Ghole and Bynon are exceptional. Together, they create a believable friendship that forms the emotional core of the production. The chemistry between them is effortless and utterly convincing. By the time tensions begin to fracture those relationships, the audience is fully invested. Particular praise should also go to the script itself. Dada writes with remarkable skill, creating characters who feel authentic and nuanced rather than symbolic.
Visually, the production is equally impressive. Tomás Palmer’s design is deceptively simple, built around the low seating and social atmosphere of the shisha lounge. The set remains largely constant throughout, reinforcing the importance of the space itself. Then comes a strikingly symbolic moment towards the end when that world is dramatically crushed. It is a powerful visual image that perfectly reflects the emotional devastation unfolding in the story.
The production’s theatrical style is also particularly effective. Much of the play is grounded in naturalistic scenes that allow us to connect with the characters as real people. These intimate moments are interspersed, however, with highly stylised transitions, physical theatre and presentational monologues. Some of the most entertaining moments come from the exaggerated, almost Brechtian caricatures associated with the podcast production company. These scenes provide welcome comic relief while also satirising a particular kind of middle-class media culture that focuses on creating sensationalism. The humour is sharp, observant and often hilariously uncomfortable.
What impressed me most was how seamlessly these contrasting styles work together. The shifts between realism and theatricality never feel jarring. Instead, they create a rich theatrical language that keeps the production dynamic and engaging throughout.
At just 90 minutes with no interval, Blue Mist never outstays its welcome. In fact, it flies by. At no point did the audience’s attention waver. Every scene feels purposeful, building steadily towards an ending that is both heartbreaking and hopeful.
By the final moments, I had tears in my eyes… not because the play relies on sentimentality, but because it has spent the previous hour and a half making us care deeply about these people and their world. The ending speaks to the importance of friendship, community and identity, but also to something equally important: the power of words.
Words can inform.
Words can connect.
Words can unite.
But words can also distort, divide and destroy.
That message resonates long after the lights come up.
It’s easy to see why Blue Mist received such acclaim at the Royal Court and earned an Olivier Award nomination. This is theatre doing exactly what great theatre should do: making us laugh, making us cry and making us think.
Warm, funny, intelligent and emotionally devastating in equal measure, Blue Mist is one of the most powerful productions I have seen this year.
Blue Mist is at Leeds Playhouse until 20 June.
Photography by Ali Wright.
