This story of a pirate radio station is also the story of a marginalised community. When they hear a bang on the door, the DJs of the illegal Blaze FM, youngsters and veterans alike, assume the authorities have spotted their antenna and come to shut them down.
That is only rarely the case. As the early years of this century slip by, many other flashpoints from the outside world find their way into the Hackney council flat from where they broadcast.
The attack on the World Trade Center brings anti-Muslim reprisals; violence associated with the drill scene leads to the banning of songs; the proliferation of knives results in the death of a friend; and redevelopment brings the threat of gentrification.
The past, too, makes its mark: new information about the death of PC Keith Blakelock in the Broadwater Farm riots of 1985 gets the police interested in Hughbert Smith (Andrew Brown), the radio station founder who, under the government’s hostile environment, faces deportation.
It is a grim tally, made harder to swallow by the station’s evident role in community cohesion. The dialogue can sometimes be clunky as the play races through the years, and the novelty of YouTube turns into the novelty of podcasting, but the seriousness of the theme and the sheer exuberance of the live music keeps energy levels high.
Co-written by James Meteyard and grime MC Jammz, it is briskly directed by Maggie Norris for The Big House, which supports care-affected young people. Taking turns on the mic, a reticent Jason (Alexander Lobo Moreno) reinvents himself as Big J, a formidable MC, impressing fellow rappers Alpha (Aliaano El-Ali) and Pritstik (Marcus Reiss), plus the sweet-voiced Aisha (Anais Lone), an aspiring lawyer. Their grime and jungle beats are the defiant response of a community under siege.