Daniel Nelson

Queens of Syria

Queens of Syria

Image by Young Vic

That’s not the usual approach for a production that’s hoping to attract theatregoers in London, Oxford, Brighton, Liverpool, Leeds, Edinburgh and Durham. 

But it’s not a normal play. It stems from a drama therapy session for 60 refugees in Jordan, using Euripides’ ancient drama The Trojan Women. Video clips of discussions from the session have been incorporated into this 75-minute presentation, which is in English and Arabic with English surtitles. 

The headscarfed women shout lines from Euripides’ play in unison, but the real power and interest comes when they step forward individually on the almost bare stage to reader their letters home and tell their stories – of risking bombs and bullets to get to a hospital only to find there was no staff to deliver a baby, of kidnap and murder, of memories of the smell of jasmine in Damascus, of having to abandon a pharmacy business painstakingly built up over years of work, of being “a queen in my house”. 

One complains that “everyone wants to bomb our home but no-one wants to accept us in their home”, but all make it clear that they love Syria and don’t want to stay refugees – “we want to go home”.

They smile ruefully at reporters’ questions (“Why do you have a smartphone?”) and reactions (“Sorry, it’s not sad enough. Do you have a sadder story?”).

The piece is a scream of anger over an international crime that has lasted years and a stifled sob for a lost Syria.

UK THEATRE TOUR DATES: 5-24 JULY

5 - 9 July: THE YOUNG VIC (London) 

11-12 July: THE NORTH WALL, in association with the OXFORD PLAYHOUSE (Oxford). Info: 01865 319 450 

13-14 July: ATTENBOROUGH CENTRE, Sussex University, Brighton

 15-16 July: EVERYMAN PLAYHOUSE, as part of the LIVERPOOL ARAB ARTS FESTIVAL, Liverpool. Info: 0151 709 4776

18 July: WEST YORKSHIRE PLAYHOUSE, Leeds. Info:: 0113 213 7700

19-20 July: ASSEMBLY ROXY, Edinburgh

21 July: ASSEMBLY ROOMS, Durham

24 July: WEST END GALA: NEW LONDON THEATRE. Info: 0844 412 4654 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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