Playwright Asif Khan: ‘When people think about theatre, they think white people and Shakespeare’
Sisters 360, Khan’s new play for children, tells the story of two hijab-wearing skateboarding sisters in Bradford. He hopes it will upend lazy ideas around Muslim girls – and bring new audiences to the theatreAsif Khan first heard about Lena, Maysa and Ameya – the three Muslim skateboarding sisters from Hull who became social media stars in 2022 with their skills – from his mother-in-law. “She does this a lot. She’ll send me an article and say: ‘You could write a play about this,’” laughs Khan. But there was something about this particular story that piqued his interest. “They all wore the hijab, lived with their mum and had an Instagram account where they did their own raps and filmed skateboarding tricks … I immediately thought: Oh OK, this is a good premise for a play.”So, he set about adapting it for the stage. He contacted the girls’ parents and had a “good, long hour’s chat”. “They were excited that someone was interested in doing a play about them,” says Khan, 44, who also works as an actor. The result of those chats is Sisters 360, a play about two Bradford-based hijab-wearing, skateboarding stepsisters, Fatima and Salima, aimed at audiences between the ages of eight and 12. Continue reading...
