Highly acclaimed and comically provocative play Love, Bombs & Apples is heading to Liverpool for two nights as part of this year’s Liverpool Arab Arts Festival.

The latest play from award-winning playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak (Baghdad Wedding, The Prophet), the one-man show uses comedy as a vehicle to bravely tackle problems facing the Arab, Jewish and Muslim communities across the world

Staged at Bluecoat on July 21 and 22, the production features four vignettes detailing the lives of four different men with four individual struggles, with story lines ranging from life under occupation for the average Palestinian, to a British Muslim jailed under suspicion of terrorism.

While the themes visited in Love, Bombs & Apples are diverse, the stories are unified by Abdulrazzak’s deeply personal method of storytelling, humorous approach and political commentary. Set against the backdrop of worldwide, political instability, with the looming threat of civil unrest, this one-man play expertly highlights the problems in today’s global and multicultural landscape.

Boldly taking on some of the world’s most notoriously contentious issues in the news today, Abdulrazzak successfully humanises the very real situations faced by indigenous and diasporic Arab, Muslim and Jewish communities.

Abdulrazzak is of Iraqi origin, born in Prague and now living in London, and draws from his own experiences. Commenting on his latest venture, Hassan Abdulrazzak says:

“Love Bombs & Apples was born from a love of short story writing.  There is a satisfyingly concentrated punch to a short story that a novel cannot replicate. I wanted to take on big subjects through the medium of comedy, which I feel the short story format allows you to do very well.  The show is very theatrical, and driven by several political messages, but at the same time has some elements of stand up. I wanted to create interesting stories that will engage the audience, make them laugh and think about the world in a slightly different way than they did before entering the theatre.”

Bringing the entertaining and clever script to life, lead actor Asif Khan (The Nutcracker, The Book) shifts seamlessly between the individual stories, captivating his audience by deftly assuming each character with surprising ease. Khan is as believable as an Arab in Jerusalem, as he is Jewish man in New York.

Speaking of his role, Khan says:

“There are many challenges such as fully embodying physically and vocally each of the four characters I’m playing. But I think the most challenging thing with this piece in particular is stamina – having the stamina to keep the audience fully engaged for 90 minutes, with no interval! But it worked out last year and so we can take confidence from that.”