A BRADFORD writer whose brother was in a coma due to coronavirus, has written a play about the impact of the pandemic on the city’s Asian community.

Kamal Kaan drew on the experiences of his family to write Us (Post 23/3) about “the disproportionate effect that Covid-19 has had on the British Asian community”. Described as darkly humorous, it focuses on a family of frontline workers and explores anxiety, structural racism and inequality.

Caught in a dilemma between continuing to work and putting their loved ones at risk, the family members are forced to re-evaluate their relationships with their country and each other.

Kamal Kaan, who is the storyliner for an upcoming TV adaptation of Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain’s debut novel, drew on the family ordeal of his brother, Muhammad Ali, whose coronavirus infection led to a medically induced coma. He is now making a recovery.

Said Kamal: “Us, (Post 23/3) is based on my own family who have all been frontline workers during this pandemic. There seemed to be a disproportionate number of British Asian people dying and there has been little written about them except for sensational headlines. I wanted to get under the skin of these people and explore the human stories. What I discovered in writing this is something more deadly and sinister than the virus itself. Dark comedy is woven throughout to express the multi-faceted nature of the characters, to illuminate all shades of the emotional and personal situations during these exceptional circumstances.”

Kamal’s plays include Father’s Land in Mother Tongue and Breaking Up with Bradford and he was story consultant for the film Ali & Ava, shot in Bradford. He won scholarships to study architecture at Cambridge and an MA in TV Fiction Writing at Glasgow.

Us (Post23/3) is being rehearsed online, and audiences will watch live streams with live edits and special effects. The cast includes Bhavna Limbachia, who played Rana Habeeb in Coronation Street and stars in BBC1 sitcom Citizen Khan, and Bradford actor Peter Singh, whose TV work includes The Capture and The Flood.

Commissioned and produced by Knaïve Theatre for its online venue A Digital Lyceum, Us, (Post 23/3) will be live-streamed on December 10, 11 and 12 at 7.30pm at digital-lyceum.com/theatre. Following the performance on Saturday, December 12 there will be a Zoom discussion with Kamal, the cast and audience. For tickets go to eventbrite.co.uk

From December 13-19 the final performance will be available at digital-lyceum.com/gallery.