A Teaspoon of Shampoo

For three decades, the charming Dr Muhammed Saeed treated patients in the Bradford neighbourhood of Manningham – that was, until 1990 when he was exposed as a fraud and not, in fact, a qualified medical doctor. Stories from former patients circulated of how his remedies were, at best, idiosyncratic and, at worst, harmful, such as prescribing a teaspoon of shampoo for a variety of ailments. How was Dr Saeed able to maintain his deception for so long?

This (mostly) true story is the premise for the development of A Teaspoon of Shampoo, a production from Theatre in the Mill with community collaborators from Manningham, supported by practice-led research from the University of Leeds. The show will blend fact and fiction, integrating archival material with firsthand accounts (and some of the myths) of Dr Saeed to create a multi-layered portrait of the man. Workshops with community and professional actors will result in a scratch performance in summer 2024.

Through exploring how archival material can be integrated into the performance, the lead researcher from the University of Leeds, Dr Rob Eagle, will workshop potential interactive and digital elements. Rob will focus on how the audience perceives the relationship between physical objects, digital content and live performance. By drawing from the archives and piecing together clues of Dr Saeed’s life, we will bring fresh interpretations of Bradford’s recent past and inscribe new meanings on archival materials.

Dr Shabina Aslam, Creative Director of Theatre in the Mill, will be leading the production with a cast of professional and community actors and collaborators from Manningham, incorporating stories from those who knew Dr Saeed. We intend for our workshops to lead to a full production in 2025 to coincide with Bradford’s year as the UK City of Culture.

The Sapling Bradford Collaboration Fund enabled the project team to conduct archival research at the Local Studies Library in Bradford, and to interview a range of people who knew Muhammed Saeed. The archival sources and interviews served as inspiration for the actors in improvising scenes that imagined key points in Saeed's life. Dr Shabina Aslam, Creative Director of the Theatre in the Mill, was then able to use the research materials and the improvised scenes to write the play's script. 'A Teaspoon of Shampoo' is a fictionalised account, inspired by several real events in the doctor’s life, but it also reflected experiences of the wider Pakistani immigrant community that settled in the area of Manningham in Bradford in the 1960s. In this portrayal of the doctor, the play neither celebrates nor condemns his 30 years of deception and the harm he exposed his patients to.

A Teaspoon of Shampoo attracted new and incredibly diverse audiences to the Theatre in the Mill, with many visiting for the first time, representing local Bradford communities including older Asian audiences and healthcare professionals. Some audience members travelled from Manchester, Sheffield and London just to see the show. Many of the audience members stated that they rarely, if ever, visit the theatre, so their attendance is testament to the play's appeal and resonance. Audience feedback noted that it was refreshing to have a Bradford story told in a way that does not deliver a simple message but rather portrays the complexities and uncomfortable truths of immigrant community experiences.

The play was a sell-out success at the Theatre in the Mill. Plans are now in development for a tour around theatres in the North and Midlands. A future podcast series is also under consideration.