Photo credit Tristram Kenton
Written and Performed by Khalid Abdalla
Directed by Omar Elerian
Produced by Fuel
HOME MCR
Actor Khalid Abdalla is probably best known as the lead terrorist in movies such as United 93 or portraying Dodi Fayed in The Crown; and now as a first time playwright. However Abdalla is also a political activist who like his father and grandfather has been arrested but unlike either of them has not been imprisoned for his political views. He was a founding member of Mosireen, a non-profit media collective born out of the revolution in Egypt. From 2011-2014 it was a revolutionary activist hub based in Cairo dedicated to supporting and producing citizen media. At its height Mosireen’s YouTube channel was the most watched non-profit channel in the world. It continues to be the most watched non-profit channel in Egypt. Born in Glasgow to parents who fled Egypt via Iraq and who later read English at Queens’ College, Cambridge University, this is clearly a man who does not fit neatly into the stereotypes portrayed in Reel Bad Arabs .
This erudite performer blends mime, video and choreography with anecdotes from his family history and his life as an actor and as a political activist. Under the sensitive direction of Omar Elerian this striking and profoundly moving piece of theatre manages to engage and entertain while educating on the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the riots in Tahir Square, the violence in Gaza and the experience of navigating passport control around the world as an Arab man with a Scottish accent mistaken as born in Ireland by the Egyptian government. It is hardly surprising that this piece entitled Nowhere is dedicated to exploring the impact of colonialism and decolonisation and what our individual histories bring to our sense of self and others. In a troubled world of seemingly unending seismic events Nowhere asks how we can continue to look on and not acknowledge that every life has value and is a part of the tapestry of our shared history and future.
The subject matter here is powerful and at times harrowing. There is no shying away from footage of bloody riots and devastated communities but these images are cleverly interspersed with threads of the performers’ own family history. Family photos show his parents as a young couple and Abdalla as a young child in a bow tie and kilt or his own children wide eyed as the family car goes through an automated car wash. These images flash up alongside images of politicians and dictators and negative images of stereotypical Arabs from Hollywood films. There is a moving picture of his grandfather painted by a fellow prisoner in the 1950s and video of the extraordinary film of 11500 sets of baby and children’s clothing stretched out on Bournemouth beach by Led By Donkeys.
Running through this production is another thread that celebrates and honours friendship. Aalam Wassef was an artist and activist collaborator from 2011 til his death from pancreatic cancer last year. Throughout this piece what shines brightly is the love and admiration for a man who loved life and who seized every day and made it have value. Death and the ensuing grief gives us all a perspective on life that fundamentally changes us and how we see ourselves and others. This was a brilliant life cut short by illness which could have just as easily been eviscerated in the Cairo riots.
In one of the more playful interactive parts of the production, the audience is invited to literally hold up a mirror to our own faces and draw ourselves with reference to the paper. This is an exercise we can continue to do and develop as the writer has but fundamentally what it suggests is ultimately if we allow ourselves to access our inner child we are all just a series of lines and squiggles regardless of class, culture or race.
In part of the piece Abdalla talks about how modern Cairo was designed on the same model as Haussmann famously used for 19th century Paris. The city planning made insurrection famously difficult and he describes how he and his fellow revolutionaries dug up the stones underfoot to throw as weapons of protest. That is a powerful image of people literally taking the ground from under their feet as a means of social protest. On the same day as I saw this production I read the Reuters article about the impact of the bombing of the Gaza Strip. “Israel’s military campaign since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack has devastated the Gaza Strip, leaving an estimated 42 million tonnes of debris piled where houses, mosques, schools and shops used to stand. In April a U.N. estimate reckoned that this would take 14 years to dispose of, while the U.N. official overseeing the problem said the clean-up would cost at least $1.2 billion.” NOWHERE is a sprawling piece of theatre covering multiple elements but at its core is a heartfelt plea for sanity in an increasingly mad world. We are killing children all across the world in wars about land boundaries which is utterly pointless if we leave nothing but rubble behind for the next generation.
Live Art Alive 