Can you measure ‘Britishness’? In the dystopian future in which Octopus is set, the government has decided it’s time to do just that. Set in an immigration waiting room, the play centres around interviews with 3 women from entirely different walks of life, the only thing bringing them together being that they’re not quite British enough to go under the radar. The play feels startlingly relevant in post-Brexit Britain and is both bold and bizarre in the way that is explores identity politics.

Afsaneh Gray’s script brilliantly captures how confusing the idea of identity really is, and specifically British identity. Sara (Alexandra D’Sa) considers herself to be British because she ‘contributes to society’ – £70,000 pa. to be exact; Sarah (Rebecca Oldfield) considers herself to be British because she is definitely white and her grandfather was a Scot’s guard; and Scheherazade (Dilek Rose) doesn’t consider herself to be really anything at all except an ‘Octopus’ which is a little bit of everything. Gray’s satire feels almost Kafkaesque at times as all 3 women seem to become caught in a web of bureaucratic box-checking and meaningless administrative vernacular.

Pia Furtardo deserves much of the credit as her directing prevents the pace from ever dropping, moving swiftly between scenes with some bizarre musical interludes and each of the women taking the role of the tired, bored, sub-contracted interviewer with an identity crisis. Of course a lot of the pace and energy comes from the 3 actresses themselves. All 3 are relentless powerhouses of energy singing, dancing, reasoning and shouting their way through an hour of near-madness. Oldfield in particular is cringe-inducing as the most tolerant casual racist. Although painful, her casual racism is almost not far gone enough to seem unbelievable which only makes Gray’s script seem all the more poignant.

Octopus’ absurd nature does mean that at moments the dialogue can feel a little cyclical or repetitive but this really only serves to drag the audience further into the Orwellian administrative nightmare and is carried off by the pace of the play itself. It is easy to imagine the show at the Edinburgh Fringe, where it has come from, as it is farcical, lighthearted and even absurd but deals with some really complex topical issues of systematic racism, islamophobia and identity. Sometimes it does feel like this means these issues are only brushed over, but then it’s unlikely a longer version of the play could offer a long-term solution to hate crime and identity politics. The show is wacky, bizarre and has far more singing than anticipated, but it is also incredibly funny and really does expose the true absurdity and ridiculousness of post-Brexit attitudes in a more than enjoyable way.

Octopus played Tara Arts Theatre until July 15.

Photo: Zuleika Henry