Bismillah! is an ISIS Tragicomedy playing at the Edinburgh Fringe

Bismillah! An ISIS Tragicomedy, now playing at the Edinburgh Fringe, takes on extremism and the alienation of youth.

Nate Birdi, left, Matthew Greenhough, centre, and Ikram Gilani in Bismillah! An ISIS Tragicomedy, which is at Edinburgh Festival Fringe this week. Courtesy Edinburgh Festival Fringe

"My problem is that your culture is sick, man – sick and dying," a black-clad, gun-brandishing terrorist says to a British soldier in Bismillah! An ISIS Tragicomedy.

It takes Dean – who is starving, has been beaten up and is tied to a pole – a minute to realise that his captor, Danny, is referring to the West, rather than his home in Yorkshire, England.

The young men are talking in an Iraqi basement, but it could have easily been an English pub: Dean comes from Leeds, while Danny speaks with a London accent, a geographical rift no less divisive than their opposing views of ISIS.

"In England, there's a silly rivalry between the north and the south," says Matthew Greenhough, who wrote Bismillah! and plays Dean. "I wanted to reframe it alongside the differences between the Middle East and the West: to show that these are all labels."

Directed by Justin Murray, the production by London’s Wound Up Theatre, which is running this week at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, is a witty take on a number of topical issues, including the alienation of modern youth from society, the lack of understanding between cultures, racism, Islamophobia and the threat of radicalisation.

With hundreds of Britons fighting for ISIL and the UK government considering air raids against the extremist group in Syria, the show couldn’t be more timely.

On the eve of its Fringe premiere, British extremists boasted of a plot, masterminded by ISIS commanders, to attack an event marking the end of the Second World War and bomb Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.

Another Queen, the rock band, feature in the play, the title of which – meaning "in the name of Allah" – is taken from the lyrics to the group's hit, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Danny has never heard of the song and when Dean treats him to a cover version, he is indignant at the use of “our word” by an infidel. He soon uses it himself – compelled to show compassion to his enemy, “bismillah” becomes a code-word between the two.

“As soon as I read the script, I knew I could play him,” Nate Birdi says of Danny, and it’s not just his character’s cockney accent that he is referring to. Birdi infuses his role with comedy while treating it with respect, making it clear that the recruit regrets his decision to fight for the extremists.

If Danny joins ISIL because he is disappointed with his life, Dean joins the army for essentially the same reason. At 22, he can’t afford to move out of his mother’s home.

The two men even used to work for the same pub chain, where their managers were, in their own way, just as militant as the ISIL commanders.

No one in the theatre company has any personal experience with radicalism, although the writers did their research to make sure they get the religious references right. “While I can’t understand the draw of ISIS,” says Greenhough, “I can understand very well the disaffection with society that many young people in Britain feel today, and that’s what drives them to this choice.

“I don’t think this disaffection is unique to any one creed, religion or race.”

Popular culture is an important part of the show, from Queen songs to the British TV soap opera EastEnders. Computer games often crop up, too, and when Dean says "I miss my X box", you laugh – but also realise why young men fighting on both sides of the divide can be so comfortable with the idea of violence – they've seen enough of it on various screens. As Dean and Danny grow friendly, they chat, as guys do, about ordinary things – girls, birthday parties and spicy chicken wings.

A sinister-looking extremist (played by Ikram Gilani) makes occasional appearances, rolling his eyes at the prisoner, beating him and lecturing the novice, who grows more and more disenchanted. Yet as the tragedy unfolds, comic relief is never far away. “It’s such a heavy subject,” says Birdi, “you can’t approach it without humour”.

Asked what the play hopes to achieve, Greenhough says: “We wanted to to celebrate the idea of personal freedom and things that unify rather than separate.”

But the creators of Bismillah! don't expect to find any ready solutions to what has grown into a serious social problem in the West.

“We are not trying to preach – we want to be part of a dialogue,” says Greenhough.

Laughing with the audience, you realise that the dialogue has already started, and you are part of it.

• Bismillah! An ISIS Tragicomedy is on at Edinburgh Festival Fringe until Friday. For more information, visit www.edfringe.com