Five Days – an incredibly personal and unorthodox tale of processing loss (soon to tour through Dublin, Downpatrick and Derry)

In the aftermath of the murder of his father, Joe Nawaz travelled from south Belfast back to Pakistan with his family to piece together what had happened. His one man show Five Days begins with a brief history of Pakistan, a somewhat adult Horrible Histories take with gags that only an Irish-Pakistani performer could hope to carry off. Then, amid the emerging details of how his dad died, we dodge volatile mangos and learn how Rab sold shop-spoiled Fanta to Orange Men on the Twelfth and swept Eileen off her feet (her own backstory deserves a play of its own).

Five Days is a somewhat unorthodox production. While Nawaz is better known as a publicist who specialises in working with Northern Ireland arts organisations and festivals, he’s also a talented writer. Admittedly, he’s probably more at home telling a yarn while propping up the Black Box bar during a festival gig than standing on stage in front of a silent audience. But his nerves and rough-around-the-edges delivery don’t detract from the captivating life experiences he shares in Five Days. The rawness instead has the opposite effect, drawing the audience into the emotional turmoil and grief.

Perhaps paradoxically for a performance taking place in a theatre space, some of the most powerful moments of Five Days are the prerecorded clips when we hear Nawaz narrating an aspect of the tale while the performer moves around the stage, retrieving props from under a very retro Trimphone. There’s such clout in the precanned delivery that I can almost imagine an alternative production with me standing in a darkened gallery in front of a simple spotlit photograph or object listening to his voiceover before moving sideways to see and hear the next exhibit. Or wearing VR goggles and having Nawaz’s voice in my head while I look around a room of virtual artefacts. Nawaz’s voice and eyes are most alive when he has the security of a script in his hand – he’s already an adept a Tenx9 storyteller – so maybe one day it will morph into a radio play (though that would remove some of the great swearing).

But none of those are options for the current touring production. Printed sheets with section titles are used as a device to chapterise the monologue, along with abbreviated seated conversations with his absent father. Swinging from the mundane to the profound, from wisecracks to standing at a grave side, Five Days is about coming-to-terms with and processing loss. (His previous show Fake ID deals with the coming-of-age aspect of his upbringing.) It’s a literal journey of discovery that reveals a lot about the country and culture that Rab didn’t quite prepare his family for, but nonetheless a place and a culture that they found themselves visiting after his passing. A place of contradictions, comedy and condolences to which Nawaz brings his audience in his charmingly disjointed manner to explore cross-continental heritage, identity and belonging.

Five Days has finished its run at the Lyric Theatre, but will be popping up in Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre (Wednesday 25 October), Downpatrick (Friday 24 November) and Derry. 

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