Syrus Lowe and Sushil Chudasama in the play, Testing The Echo, at the Liverpool Playhouse _320
JUST what does it take to be British? Well, there is now a test. The Citizenship Test examines would-be British citizens on all things British.
But, according to former Coronation Street actor Sushil Chudasama: “Ninety-five per cent of British people would fail it.”
He had thumbed his way through a massive book of test questions while researching a new theatre role, and found it unbelievable.
“It’s ridiculous,” says the Blackburn-born actor. “Foreigners are never going to need that knowledge. In fact, they will end up becoming more British than we are, having a better sense of identity.”
He has just opened a tour of a new Liverpool-bound play Testing the Echo, by British writer David Edgar, and it deals with just that subject of Britishness.
It’s a multi-character play which looks at the lives of various people planning to take the Citizenship Test, from Chinese to Serbs, and gives a pretty clear picture of Britain’s diverse community today.
A cast of eight play 40 different characters and among his roles Chudasama will have to tackle a Scotsman, a Serb and a Pakistani in Leeds.
“Luckily, I am quite good at accents.” he reports. The storylines are often plucked from the headlines, and Chudasama’s Leeds-based character, Mahmood, is kidnapped by a Muslim group to convince him to use religion to give up drugs while he finds his friend – some group members considering are becoming suicide bombers.
The play – which has its shafts of wit – does not take any particular attitude. “David Edgar describes it as an argument play. You get many sides, but the audience has to go away and decide what they think.”
Chudasama spent 10 months as Scooter in Coronation Street and then moved to Manchester. He is still based there – and now mixes television work with theatre.
He has worked in Liverpool at the Everyman, in Tony Green’s new play, The Kindness of Strangers, his favourite script so far he says. “But Testing the Echo matches it and may even surpass it.”
It has already been staged in Salisbury – “middle class and mostly white” – where he suggests many in the audience found it uncomfortable. “It’s what theatre is about – not just to make you laugh or cry but to make you think.”
* TESTING the Echo is at Liverpool Playhouse from February 12.
