Bhasker Patel and Nusrath Tapadar in Camdenwalla [Harry Elletson]

A PLAY about racist attacks in 1990s Camden is being held in the former home of a pioneering project that documented the impact on the Bengali community.

Camdenwalla, directed by Jonny Khan, has a three-week run at the Camden People’s Theatre in Hampstead Road, west Euston.

The fringe theatre was the former base of the Camden Monitoring Project, a scheme run by former Camden Council leader Nash Ali OBE that filed reports on racist attacks in the borough.

Mr Khan told the New Journal that his fictional story raised questions about what is the best way to fight back against racism – and as an “ode” to the different approaches taken by the older and younger generations of immigrant families living in Camden today.

He said: “I grew up with my dad saying things like ‘keep your head down and get on with it’. But I in myself have grown up British and think, **** that.”

Mr Khan said he was approached by the CPT which wanted a script about the history of the building.

He spoke to Cllr Ali, the first Bangladeshi leader of the council and also members of the King’s Cross and Brunswick neighbour­hood association and Drummond Street traders.

Mr Khan said: “I got a lot of stories about the general vibe of Camden. People spoke about how school itself wasn’t too bad, but big beatings-up happened on the way home.”

He said his play was essentially “two brown people – one older, one younger generation – on the stage asking ‘what is it to be British?”, adding: “They are having fun in their lives, but the outside world is stopping them reaching their potential. They debate how to best protect their community. It asks how many times can people be attacked, and will just writing something in a file do anything?

“This is sort of something we are all struggling with now. How do I show my politics? Is it going out on marches? Or is it being sat in my room and voting? What are the different ways of showing up for your community?”

Nash Ali

Speaking of his own experience, he said: “I can’t expect the older generation to go out and protest, because that’s not how a lot of them trained themselves to survive.

“It has shocked me to think my dad has lived an incredibly complex life. And then there’s me living mine, completely different. It’s only one generation.

“But our parents are not resting so we can rest. Mine worked their arses off and here I am today in a rehearsal room with a journalist talking about my play. That privilege has not come from anywhere but my parents allowing me to do that.

“He added: “Now it’s our turn to help them, to be there for them, in caring for the community. It’s all these sorts of thoughts I’m trying to touch on.”

The play, set on one night in 1994, is pitched in the shadow of racist murders including the deaths of Altab Ali, Richard Everitt and Stephen Lawrence.

The organisation operated at a time when such violence was routinely ignored, dismissed or underreported by authorities, forcing communities to organise for their own protection.

On the racism today, Mr Khan said: “It’s less forthright now, more passive. You don’t see it, you feel it.

All we have got is ourselves. “We are going to need that real sense of community more than ever.”

Camdenwalla is played by Bhasker Patel, best known for playing Rishi Sharma in Emmerdale and a veteran of the UK stage, and actor Nusrath Tapadar.