THEATRE – DIGITAL
Written by Frances Poet, by National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) UK/AU digital season
Filmed at Rockvilla, National Theatre of Scotland (NTS). Live streamed through Sydney Opera House: https://stream.sydneyoperahouse.com/videos/national-theatre-of-scotland-adam-uk-au-digital- available until 6 March 2022
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ****1/2
Adam Kashmiry as Adam
The opening image of Adam is horrific. A young woman unstraps the taut bindings that flatten her bosom, then holds a knife under one breast. Is she about to self-harm in a ghastly act?
Adam is a compelling, challenging and poignant play inspired by the life of Adam Kashmiry and written by Frances Poet. (What a delicious name for a playwright.)
The play depicts the alarming and disturbing experiences of Adam – played by Kashmiry himself in this production – a young, trans man who wrestles with gender identity in his homeland of Egypt where he was born a girl. When he flees to the UK on a tourist visa, he claims asylum as a transgender man, but the asylum process is almost as fraught as his life in Egypt.
This theatrical production, directed deftly and sensitively by Cora Bissett and Louise Lockwood, is filmed specifically for digital consumption, so it combines the best of both screen and theatre. It has the passion, lyricism and immediacy of theatre and the visual dexterity of screen.
It is as if female Adam, played by Yasmin Al- Khudairi (this character is listed as ‘Egyptian Adam’), flickers on and off with male Adam, both on screen and in the real world. The two parts of the self exist both separately and in the same moment, same body, same soul.
The play flashes back to Adam in his family home in Egypt, with his adoring mother, Maryam (Myriam Acharki), calling him ‘Princess’ and his father rejecting him when Adam does not behave like a girl should. We witness Adam as a female, being kissed by a girl who loves women, and Adam, dressed as a boy, being assaulted by a group of men. He could not speak the truth or become the man he wanted to be in that conservative world.
His experiences after claiming asylum in Scotland are distressing, particularly when he is interrogated vigorously and brutally by an Asylum Claim Official (Neshla Caplan) who doubts his transgender status. Later, he is visited by a Mental Health Nurse (Stephen McCole) who speaks gently, but is unable to help Adam get the testosterone that he believes is the solution to his problems and will ensure that officials believe that he is genuinely transgender.
Perhaps the most moving scene is the final choral song on a digital screen filled with 140 trans and non-binary individuals from across the globe. They sing, “We are just ordinary people, extraordinary people.” it is both energising and heartbreaking.
Good luck and good life Adam.
by Kate Herbert
No comments:
Post a Comment