Ovalhouse and Paper Tiger
Following the story of Amina Arraf, the blogger known as 'A Gay Girl In Damascus', and the events fomented by the media's coverage of her kidnapping, Sour Lips fuses fantasy and non-fiction to create its own speculative narrative.
Previews 29 & 30 January
Venue: Downstairs
Written by Omar El-Khairy. Directed by Carissa Hope Lynch.
I was still living as an Arab Muslim in America.
I struggled with coming out to friends and family, and so I decided to come back to Syria.
It hasn’t been easy. But we are here, just as we are everywhere.
DAMASCUS 18:00 – Amina was walking near Fares Al-Khouri Street when three armed men seized her. According to an eyewitness, Amina was bustled into a red Dacia Logan with a bumper sticker of Basel Assad. The men are assumed to be members of the Ba’ath Party militia or one of the security services.
Amina’s present location is still unknown.
Following the story of Amina Arraf, the blogger known as 'A Gay Girl In Damascus', and the events fomented by the media's coverage of her kidnapping, Sour Lips fuses fantasy and non-fiction to create its own speculative narrative.
“highly ambitious... visually gorgeous... a delightful sensuous experience” Broadway Baby (Burst, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010)
This play is a fictional account, inspired by both a hoax and its true story. It contains extracts from Tom MacMaster’s weblog, A Gay Girl in Damascus. However, the characters, timelines and incidents have been changed for dramatic purposes. In some cases, fictitious characters and incidents have been further added to the narrative, and the words are those imagined by the author. The play should not be understood as either a biography or factual account.
Free post-show discussions
Fri 1 Feb: A Gay Girl in Damascus: the media and the Arab world
With panelists Zein Ja'far (Sky News Producer) and Brian Whittaker (Guardian Middle East Editor)
Thurs 7 Feb: Does verbatim theatre still talk the talk?
Hosted by Chris Campbell (Literary Manager, Royal Court)
Panelists include:
Omar Elerian (Bush Associate Director)
Jo Caird (freelance Arts Journalist for Guardian and Whats On Stage)
Derek Paget (Verbatim academic; author of "No Other Way to Tell It" and "True Stories")
AN OVALHOUSE COMMISSION
Photo by Tanya Habjouqa.
Click an image to view a larger version.
Tue 19 Feb – Sat 23 Feb, 7:45pm
Two similar scenarios played out 10,000 miles apart have very different consequences in Bilimankhwe Arts retelling of Love on Trial, which intercuts Stanley Kenani’s Caine Prize-nominated story of illegal homosexuality in Malawi with the press frenzy surrounding British singer George Michael’s 1998 arrest for ‘lewd conduct’ in an LA public toilet.
Wed 6 Mar – Fri 8 Mar, 7:45pm
The Forest & the Field is a gently seductive, immersive piece of non-fiction storytelling, which asks its audience to look at themselves, and to consider what we’re all doing when we meet in a theatre space.
Tue 26 Feb – Sat 2 Mar, 8:15pm
The Turing archive, a treasure chest of histories, is being downsized; money is tight and space is precious. But what should be saved? And is it really worth saving anything anyway? Two colleagues risk discarding a few innocent looking documents and erasing a whole past. A mischievous piece about forgetting, activism and apathy.