“Outstanding... Franzmann manages to make all the characters credible and well-rounded, even the damaged perpetrator... She gets to the rotten core of what’s going on in these melting-pot battlegrounds... The play of the year? In my book, quite possibly.” -- Daily Telegraph
A gripping and urgent play about a well-meaning teacher who intervenes on behalf of a troublesome student, with terrifying consequences.
When white secondary-school teacher Amanda is pushed to the ground by black student Jason, she’s reluctant to report him as she knows exclusion could condemn him to a future as troubled as his past.
But when Jason decides to protect himself by spinning a story of his own, Amanda is sucked into a vortex of lies in which victim becomes perpetrator. With the truth becoming less clear and more dangerous by the day, it isn’t long before careers, relationships and even lives are under threat.
Vivienne Franzmann worked as a secondary-school teacher in London for twelve years. Mogadishu is her first full-length play.