Words: George Young
Image: Helen Murray

5 stars

Khalid Abdalla’s Nowhere is an urgent call for change in a world steeped in injustice. Blending personal and political, this anti-biography darts between stories, countries and history. From Cairo to Paris, London to Gaza, Abdalla shares his own story intertwined within a larger tapestry of oppression, resistance, and the legacy of colonisation.

Abdalla bridges the gap between audience and performer from the offset, establishing us all in a shared place. Out there. In here. The unspoken question: ‘where do you go when nowhere is safe?’ Through a wealth of multimedia devices; photographs, projections, music, videos, voice overs, song and dance, old friends are brought to life and the past is brought into the present. Whispers, echoes, shhh don’t talk about Palestine, permeate the piece. There is no doubt of the relevance of the stories Abdalla chooses to share, “for history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.”

Across the 90-minute show without an interval, Abdulla moves through pivotal moments in his life and his family’s: his Grandfather in a prison cell, his Father forced to flee Egypt for a better life, a child in a prison cell, reaching for a hug, Abdalla protesting in Tahir Square during the Arab Spring. It spans his experiences in the West; the prejudice, typecasting and racism. Through his art, his accent shifts, his blood line geography; he asks who am I? In the mirror, on the page and as we stamp our feet in an audience-wide exercise, Abdalla invites us to look at ourselves.

Directed by Omar Elerian, the piece expertly weaves theatrical craft with an honest, human voice underscored with grief. Nowhere is more than theatre. It is a radical demand for justice and for peace. One that will stay with you for a very long time.

Nowhere
The Traverse Theatre
Various times
12- 24 Aug