Yasser

At 33, Abdelkader Benali is a multi-award winning writer and a famous name in the Netherlands, but, as is often the case with continental writers, their success takes a while to come into the English-speaking world. Thanks to Guy Masterson's inspired choice to co-produce the English version of this monologue, Benali stands a good chance of becoming a household name in England too. Not least because the action of this potentially controversial piece is hereby taking place in the the depths of English suburbia – the Middleton Theatre, Harrogate.

Captivating and emotionally supple, William el-Gardi is Yasser Mansoor – a vein, self-absorbed, occasionally pathetic, but immensely talented Palestinian actor who is about to go on stage as Shylock the Jew. Only he has lost his nose and potentially lost his beloved Lucy, too.

El-Gardi seems to put every fibre of his being into this performance, even if at times it remains difficult to see past his nuanced portrayal into the core of the play itself. This may be because Benali is consumed with a youthful enthusiasm to cover a lot of ground in a short piece – love, ideals, politics, Shakespeare, Arafat and "teaching humanity what respect is". But at least it's a promising debut and well worth the effort.