The Black Album follows an Asian kid from Kent who goes to college in London and teams up with a sympathetic group of anti-racists. But it is 1989, the year of the fatwa, and as Shahid begins a hedonistic affair with his lecturer his radical Muslim friends want to steer him away from the decadence of the West.

Hanif Kureishi’s witty stage adaptation of his strikingly prescient and acclaimed novel, The Black Album, humorously considers how the events of 1989 have shaped today’s world, where fundamentalism battles liberalism.

Author Kureishi’s other plays at the National Theatre include Sleep With Me and a version of Brecht’s Mother Courage. His novels include The Buddha Of Suburbia and Intimacy.

Jatinda Verma, who directs The Black Album, is the Artistic Director of Tara Arts, the company that co-produces the show with the National Theatre.

Following its London run, The Black Album will embark on a UK tour.

For more about The Black Album at the National’s Cottesloe theatre, read the First Night Feature.