The Black Album: Adapted for the Stage

by Hanif Kureishi

Religion is for the benefit of the masses, not for brain-box types like you. Those simpletons require strict rules for living, otherwise they would still think the earth sits on three fishes. But you mind-wallahs must know it's a lot of balls. An Asian kid from Kent goes to college in London and teams up with a sympathetic group of anti-racists. But it's 1989, the year of the fatwa, and as Shahid begins a hedonistic affair with his lecturer, his radical Muslim friends want to steer him away from the decadence of the West. We're not blasted Christians. We don't turn the other buttock. We will fight for our people who are being tortured anywhere - in Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir, East End! Hanif Kureishi's witty stage adaptation of his strikingly prescient and acclaimed novel, "The Black Album", humorously considers how the events of 1989 have shaped today's world, where fundamentalism battles liberalism. A co-production with Tara Arts, "The Black Album" premiered at the National Theatre, London, in July 2009.

Genres: Plays

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 2009

About the author

Hanif Kureishi is the author of novels (including The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy), story collections (Love in a Blue Time, Midnight All Day, The Body), plays (including Outskirts, Borderline and Sleep With Me), and screenplays (including My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus). Among his other publications are the collection of essays Dreaming and Scheming, The Word and the Bomb and the memoir My Ear at His Heart.

Kureishi was born in London to a Pakistani father and an English mother. His father, Rafiushan, was from a wealthy Madras family, most of whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947. He came to Britain to study law but soon abandoned his studies. After meeting and marrying Kureishi’s mother Audrey, Rafiushan settled in Bromley, where Kureishi was born, and worked at the Pakistan Embassy.

Kureishi attended Bromley Technical High School where David Bowie had also been a pupil and after taking his A levels at a local sixth form college, he spent a year studying philosophy at Lancaster University before dropping out. Later he attended King’s College London and took a degree in philosophy. In 1985 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980’s London for a film directed by Stephen Frears. It won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.

His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie. The next year, 1991, saw the release of the feature film entitled London Kills Me; a film written and directed Kureishi.

His novel Intimacy (1998) revolved around the story of a man leaving his wife and two young sons after feeling physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. This created certain controversy as Kureishi himself had recently left his wife and two young sons. It is assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical. In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau, which won two Bears at the Berlin Film Festival: a Golden Bear for Best Film, and a Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox). It was controversial for its unreserved sex scenes. The book was translated into Persian by Niki Karimi in 2005.

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.

Kureishi is married and has a pair of twins and a younger son.

Reviews

[Neira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straightforward and simple. I'm looking forward to reading the novel.

[sabisteb aka callisto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diese Ganzschrift besteht aus mehreren Elementen, auf die ich einzeln eingehen werde.

=== The Play ===
Das Stück ist prinzipiell einfach zu lesen, es hat sehr viele Annotationen, die gut gewählt sind. Problematisch ist die Umgangssprache, die häufig das 3rd Person singular S weglässt. Das machen SuS ohnehin permanent, es nun auch so geschrieben zu sehen finde ich nicht so toll. Klar kann man das thematisieren und sie korrigieren lassen…
Spannend ist dieses Theaterstück wahrlich nicht. Es passiert nicht so wirklich viel und die Handlung hat nun nicht gerade mehr Lebensweltbezug zur heutigen Zeit. Wer von meinen SuS kennt noch Prince oder hat von den Rushdies Satanischen Versen überhaupt gehört?
Ich finde die Klassifizierung als Realschule SI nicht passend, zumal das Buch bei Klett als Abiturempfehlung läuft. Ich sehe nicht, dass meine BF im zweiten Jahr in der Lage sind das Buch zu lesen oder zu diskutieren. Die haben keine Ahnung mehr von den 1980er Jahren und Action hat das Buch auch so gar nicht zu bieten.
Ich würde ehrlich gesagt nur Auszüge verwenden. Die Diskussionen ob Demokratie und Freiheit nicht auch bedeutet, das Recht zu haben Bücher zu verbrennen ist durchaus spannend, dafür muss man sich nicht durch die komplette, langweilige Handlung quälen.
=== Das Zusatzmaterial ===
=== Aufgaben ===
Eher dürftig. Es gibt ein paar Zitate, die man diskutieren soll und einige Zitate über Bücherverbrennung und Zensur. Das war es auch schon, da muss man wohl Zusatzmaterial kaufen.
=== Texte ===
Ja, es gibt zusätzliche Texte zum Stück, die auf einem Niveau sind, bei dem ich bezweifeln würde, ob Studenten im 1. Semester mit den Begriffen was anfangen können. Da werden Themen wie Edward Saids Konzept des „Other“ diskutiert mit denen ich erst in „culture studies“ in Berührung kam bzw. in einem Proseminar.
Das Interview mit dem Autor ist ebenfalls auch einen Niveau, dass sehr viel Landeskunde, Thatcher und Wissen um die globale Bankenkriese voraussetzt, das meine SuS definitiv nicht haben, nicht mal kurz vor dem Abitur.

=== Fazit ===
Definitiv nicht für die Realschule. Die Konzepte, die in diesem Stück und den Zusatztexten angesprochen werden, sind weit über dem Horizont der mir bekannten BF Klassen. Eher für die Oberstufe und selbst da, wegen des eher langatmig, langweiligen Stücks nur in Auszügen einsetzbar, würde ich sagen. Die begleitenden Texte gehen weit über den Horizont vieler SuS des beruflichen Gymnasiums hinaus und auch viele Gymnasiasten an allgemeinbildenen Gymnasien werden mit Said und Ideologie (Althuser und Co) wenig anfangen können, das hat schon viele Studenten in höheren Semestern an ihre Grenzen gebracht.

[Lucila · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish I had been assigned the book instead because this play was so disappointing. It felt rushed, lacked depth and made the characters look crazy. I've read positive comments praising the book and how wonderfully described it was, but the play was overall boring. I don't know much about the culture portrayed here, and I've only read one short story by Salman Rushdie, but I felt many things needed more explanation; there were a lot of names and events mentioned, for example, that seemed relevant but I had to research in order to understand what was actually going on.

Shahid Hassan (a last name that coincidentally is the one Mahoma's grandson had) is a young British Muslim (of Pakistani descent) who loves books and Prince. He moves to London after his father's death and is in a constant search for identity. He befriends a group of radical islamists and falls for his liberal professor Deedee. Shahid is torn between who he should be because of his roots and who he wants to be and in his road to self-discovery he deals with identity, sex, drugs, religion, literature, politics. I particularly enjoyed the Prince reference and how he is described as a sort of 'hybrid' individual, much like Shahid.

I would give the book a try despite not having liked the play. I still feel this story could be good. And I'm definitely adding Rushdie's Satanic Verses on my to-read list.

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The play itself is much what I expected, it lacks a certain depth, scenes are a little unconnected, the characters lack complexity. I agree with a lot that has been criticized about it before.
On the other hand, this edition offers additional material with it, an introduction that explains the writing incentive, an interview with the author, an explanation of issues of identity in British people of Pakistani descent, a timeline of banned books, and also background to Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, or at least to the raucus it caused.
Together with tha additional material, the play itself can be read differently and even though it is definitely not perfect, nor really that interestingly written as a 'story', it is worth reading nonetheless, at least it was for me.

[Sukhpreet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm. I came across this play at an independent book store in Halifax, where I was pleased to find the work of a racialized playwright whom I'd never heard of in their slim theatre section. It's a quick read and there is certainly some success with building tension, which made me want to see what happened. But the characters often feel like caricature and the politics more of a performance of complexity than actual complexity.

[Ross Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve enjoyed some of Kureishi’s novels in the past. I have not read The Black Album, but this adaptation is not very good. It’s like he wanted to save too much of the novel, and so the characters do things that probably make sense with the backstory of the novel, but just seem random here.

Disappointing.

[Guadalupe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I found the story witty and compelling, and I think that Kureishi develops an interesting point of view. Still, the whole thing felt rather rushed and the characters, at times, not fully fleshed-out. I guess some things are always lost in adaptations. I just wish I'd chosen to read the original novel first.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I don't know what to say about it. The ending was ehm...

[Abril · Rating 2 out of 5]

o yo soy tonta o verdaderamente no se entiende nada de lo que pasa

[smin · Rating 1 out of 5]

whatafack 😳🤨🤨

[Chd · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a German English teacher, I let my students review this play. They agreed to the following review:

"We read this play in English class, 12th grade. It's not one of my favorite books but I think the book has a good intention. The play deals with one guy, Shahid, who comes into a group whose intention is very radical. All of the group members are Muslims and believe very strongly in their religion. Shahid is new in London but has lived in England his whole life. His origin is Pakistan, and because of that he is integrated into the group around Riaz, its leader. The group more and more shows their radical intention. Shahid mostly ignores this but his teacher Deedee, whom he is in love with, warns him about the group members. Just when the group wants to burn a book because they think this book (Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses”) is blasphemous he starts to think for himself. As the members tell him they want to attack Deedee because she wants to discuss the book in class, his eyes are opened and he realizes their true intention. He protects Deedee at her home and stands by her side. In the end there are different references to suicide attacks, which symbolize the willingness for violence in this radical group. In my opinion the book is not difficult to read or to understand, but also not very exciting too. I had no real interest to continue reading this book after the first pages. But I think that this is a good way to deal with such a complicated theme. The book definitely shows how easy it is to come into a group like that and how clever they are to convince you. It is scaring to read how “normal“ they seem but how their real intention looks like. I would recommend the book to be read in class, because it is a good way to warn people about such groups and shows this from a good point of view."

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

hard to understand and follow the different characters

[Belén Torres · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I was lost and I didn't like it because I didn't know much about the context, but I found it extremely boring.