The Lowry, Salford – until 12 October 2019
Reviewed by Joseph Everton
5*****
If you’ve never thought to question the findings of the Trojan Horse investigation, you should probably watch this play. If you just accepted the media narrative and Ofsted findings that extremist Islam was being forced upon pupils in schools across Birmingham, you should probably watch this play. If you know nothing about the Trojan Horse investigation, go and watch the play anyway. It was unashamedly political, accusing Michael Gove himself of being the true Trojan Horse, of being corrupt and encouraging an aggressive right-wing media narrative that high performing, majority Muslim schools in Birmingham were breeding grounds of extremism for his own personal gain.
The case was compelling and made for a fast paced, emotional show. The impressive cast told the story of once celebrated governor, Tahir Alam, painted as an extremist by the press, but, in reality, a selfless man responsible for the changing fortunes of the schools he governed and vastly improving outcomes for generations of children. There was a hot- headed pupil living in difficult family circumstances, one of the very pupils who benefitted from the teachers and governors dragged through the mud following the ‘scandal’. The play also told the tale of one of the controversial teachers suspended during the investigation who, although guilty of espousing some extremely questionable views on homosexuality, provided an enthralling defence of his character and the influence he had on children under his charge.
The show moved from the classroom to the courtroom. Under harsh lighting, damning statements by top politicians flashed across the screen in English and Urdu. The script, by Matt Woodhead and Helen Monks, was powerful, laced with humour and punctuated by emotional testimony.
Seventy five minutes of content that will make you laugh, make you angry and make you question, Trojan Horse is a must watch. Some of the rumours and accusations levelled at the subjects of the play were worrying and dangerous, but Trojan Horse did an incredible job in their defence and has to be seen