Review: Planet Omar, Unicorn Theatre ★★★★

Eid Mubarak! You are all invited TO the parTY!

In February 2021, I read Planet Omar aloud to my class every day via Zoom, children at home, children still in school, doing all the voices. As the time went on, siblings and parents began creeping into the frame, eager to hear Omar’s latest.

It was the book that held our little community together during one of the strangest and hardest periods any of us had lived through. Zanib Mian’s funny, warm, gloriously chaotic Omar became our shared companion. So when I heard the Unicorn Theatre had brought him to the stage, there was only one place I was going.

Which is why it broke my heart a little that the house was so sparsely attended on my visit. Because this show deserves to be seen. By everyone.

For the uninitiated: Omar is a funny, warm, gloriously chaotic eight-year-old British Pakistani Muslim boy navigating school, family, and life. He rides the tube. His sister plays keepy uppies. He visits the Science Museum. He is Muslim, yes, but he is also, unmistakably, a Londoner. Zanib Mian’s great achievement, in a series that has won the Little Rebels Award and been nominated for the Carnegie Medal, is that Omar belongs to all of us. Now adapted for the stage by Bradford playwright Asif Khan and directed by Sameena Hussain, this world premiere co-production between Leeds Playhouse, the Unicorn, and Birmingham Rep brings that achievement vividly and inventively to life.

Set and costume designer Nikki Charlesworth has created something deceptively clever. School gym equipment doubles, triples, and reinvents itself as bedroom, classroom, and beyond, beds and tables wheeling in as the story demands. It captures the cartoonish, diary-entry energy of Nasaya Mafaridik‘s book illustrations with real fidelity, and the bold oranges and reds of the palette will feel immediately familiar to any child who knows the books. A rocket ship earns its moment as a proper STEM adventure: a brilliant, bold lump of yellow and red that looks as though it has leapt straight off the page.

The puppetry is a particular delight. Baby Esa is rendered with real talent, capturing the chaotic toddler energy that any parent or older sibling will recognise instantly, and drawing some of the biggest laughs of the afternoon. Izzy Coward, who operates the puppet, also plays Charlie, a piece of doubling that speaks to the versatility demanded of the whole ensemble. Justin Kendal-Sadiq anchors the show as Omar, and Aizah Khan as Mum, Umar Butt as Dad, Emaan Durrani in the double role of Maryam and Daniel, and Joanna Holden as Mrs Rodgers all switch between multiple roles with such clarity of costume and mannerism that it never once confuses. That takes real skill, and this cast has it in abundance.

The production does not shy away from racism. The racist bully and the racist neighbour are both portrayed with unflinching honesty, and the Muslim mothers in the audience around me were visibly affected. At one point a child yelled “you’re horrible” at the stage. The production did not rush to soothe that discomfort away. Instead it held it, carrying it into the interval and leaving parents and children to sit with it together, which is exactly the right instinct. Some of the most important conversations happen in theatre foyers.

Nor does it let us off the hook about where these ideas come from. In one quietly devastating moment, it reminds us that when those in the highest public office describe Muslim women as letterboxes and tell them what to wear, we should not be entirely surprised when children repeat the sentiment without understanding it. The racist child is not an aberration but a result.

Act Two resolves this with both satisfaction and intelligence. The racist child’s own mother is horrified by what he has said, because it did not come from her. He is a child who has absorbed harmful ideas from elsewhere and repeated them without understanding their weight. That is a braver and more truthful choice than a straightforward villain, and a far more useful one. It opens a conversation rather than closing it, reminding every parent and teacher in the room, whatever their background, that we cannot always know what our children are hearing, or what they are saying when we are not there.

And then there is the ending. An Eid Mubarak banner unfurls from above. Food is shared. There is comfort, and happiness, and dancing: joyful, exuberant, irresistible dancing. You are all invited. This celebration belongs to everyone in the room.

The Unicorn was too empty on the afternoon I attended. It should not be. If your child has read Planet Omar, they will see a world they already love brought cleverly and joyfully to life. If they have not, this is the perfect introduction.

Non-Muslim families: you are not observers here. You are guests at the party. And it is a very good party indeed.

RUNNING TIME: Approximately 2 hours including interval

AGE GUIDANCE: Ages 7+

CONTENT GUIDANCE: The play includes themes of Islamophobia and racism, explored sensitively and appropriately for the age group.

Planet Omar runs at the Unicorn Theatre, 147 Tooley Street, London SE1 2HZ until 7 June 2026. A short walk from London Bridge station. Box Office: 020 7645 0560.

The production then travels to Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

All photos: Robling Pix

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