Synopsis
Fireworks - Al' ab Nariya
$21.99 Published by Methuen
In a Palestinian town eleven-year-old Lubna and twelve-year-old Khalil are playing on the empty stairwell in their apartment block
As the siege intensifies outside, fear for their safety becomes as crippling as the conflict itself
Dalia Taha's play offers a new way of seeing how war fractures childhood
Fireworks (Al'ab Nariya) is part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project and received its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, 2015
REVIEWS
"By concentrating on their experience, Dalia Taha's play offers a refreshingly oblique perspective on the conflict in Gaza" ~ Evening Standard
" ... she [Dalia Taha] gives a vivid account of the psychic damage done to children growing up in a city like Gaza and of the elaborate pretences adopted by their parents to protect them from reality ... Taha's point is clearly that any hope of normality is fractured in a military crisis and that, while children are the immediate victims, the besieged adults are enmeshed in their own web of pretence ... Taha's play offers a frighteningly convincing picture of the tragedy of lost innocence" ~ Guardian
"Taha's writing, beautifully translated by Clem Naylor, is bracingly naturalistic, immersing us fully in her characters' tense, circumscribed lives through a series of vignettes ... This is a compelling example of the power of theatre to transport us deep into the human reality of a conflict from which, packaged on our television screens, it is far too easy to turn our minds" ~ Observer
"This debut play by Dalia Taha is an intimate chamber piece, showing life in the shadows of a Palestinian town besieged by Israeli air strikes ... It's an undeniably powerful idea that is made all the more heartbreaking by the play's tragic outcome ... It's a disconcerting, provocative jolt for the audience and proof that Dalia Taha is a young playwright of considerable promise" ~ Daily Telegraph
"How do you protect your children from the harshest realities of the world without resorting to undue pretence or handicapping their preparation for adulthood? It's a hard enough problem for parents anywhere, but imagine if you were a present-day Palestinian in a town under siege. That's the situation that Palestinian writer Dalia Taha brings alive with remarkable power and insight in Fireworks" ~ Independent