Theatre / Reviews
Review: A Grain of Sand, حبة رمل, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A valiant and disturbing work of art’
20,000 children dead. Many more with life-changing injuries. Almost 40,000 children without one or both parents. Such is the terrible cost of the conflict in Gaza; a collective trauma that will resonate long after whatever cynical ‘peace plan’ has been imposed by the Israeli-American axis on the people of Palestine.
In the face of such horrifying numbers, how do we even begin to understand what has happened to those who – like most of us – simply wished to get on with their lives undisturbed by war, or anything else?
Art – theatre, music, film, painting, whatever – seems an inadequate response to the realities of conflict, yet it is often only through artistic interpretation that those of us at a distance from such brutality can even begin to comprehend the scale of suffering involved.
This is why A Grain Of Sand is a both a valiant and disturbing work of art that distils the conflict through the eyes Gaza’s of children – the not-quite-fully-formed humans who more often than not have the wisest, most rounded and perceptive view of the disintegration of the world around them.
This short play, by Elias Matar and co-devised by performer Sarah Agha, strips bare the experience of the under-16s who have paid the most terrible price. They are the grains of sand on Gaza’s deserted beaches – dead, missing, orphaned, traumatised, robbed of any meaningful future. Agha takes their experiences and, using spoken word and poetry, hands back a childhood to those from whom it has been stolen.
It’s a very powerful hour indeed. Central to the drama is the story of the anqa, a phoenix-like bird from Arab mythology that is destroyed before rising from the ashes to become a symbol of hope and survival. The power of this creature hovers above the drama, protecting the children voiced by Agha, who captures the very innocence of those living in the shadow of the bombings.
Yes, there is fear and sorrow, but playfulness too. When Agha switches from the terror of the months and years that began on October 7, 2023, and meanders into a story about a fart that becomes human, courtesy of a wise and wry grandmother, we understand that survival is not merely a grim act of holding out; it must involve humour that disarms fear and comforts those who shelter in basements from the inhumanity all around them.
It is also a signal that stories of all kinds will go on, far beyond the lives of the individuals responsible for such destruction.
The end of the play depicts Agha as a 12-year-old alone on the beach, without family and with no idea of what might happen next. Yet there is a note of hope in her speech that turns Joseph Stalin’s infamous comment – ‘a single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic’ – completely on its head. Even so, the roll call of young victims projected behind her is a sobering reminder that this story, like that of the anqa, will be passed down deep into generations of Palestinians far into the future.
A Grain of Sand, حبة رمل, is at The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic on March 3-7 at 8pm (6.30pm on Thursday, with post-show Q&A), with an additional 3pm matinee on Saturday. Visit www.bristololdvic.org.uk for tickets.
All photos: Toufik Douib
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