Writer: Sherine Chalhie
Director: Bayley Freer
Aisha, as written and performed by Sherine Chalhie in her solo piece Why So Syrian?, has all the self-assuredness and vigour of a 17-year-old from Tottenham excited to be taking her first solo holiday. That trip is to visit relatives in Damascus, where Chalhie portrays an array of aunts and uncles with a variety of comic caricatures.
And then she is swept off her feet by her handsome cousin Mohamed. When she returns to England and back to school, Mo makes the perilous journey by boat to Greece and then through other underground routes to join her.
As he ingratiates himself with Aisha’s mother, talk of marriage starts to dominate. But life with Mohamed starts to go downhill, and Aisha finds herself cut off from the friends and family who could help her.
Chalhie’s script lays a delicate breadcrumb trail of clues as to the coercive nature of Mohamed’s behaviour towards his teenage girlfriend. The script also veers into a discussion of some of the patriarchal traditions around marriage – most notably that both parties are expected to remain virgins until the wedding night, but it is only the girls whose state is checked or considered.
And so any pre-marital sex brings with it a sense of guilt and shame, even when that sex was non-consensual (and, in Aisha’s case, happened while she was unconscious). “I deserve what’s happening to me,” Chalhie has Aisha say, heartbreakingly, at the bottom of her pit of despair.
As Aisha struggles to find a way back, Chalhie’s script does start to stutter a little, but the character of a free-spirited young woman does remain intact. The closing third of the piece lacks the pace and vibrancy of the opening, lessening the impact of the important and necessary points regarding the situation facing too many women who have to flee domestic violence.
The lighting and projection work that accompanies this one-woman show cannot quite overcome the limitations of the Soho Theatre’s upstairs space, but despite that one is left with the impression that Chalhie is a powerful young voice who has much to say, and a gift in encouraging people to listen.
Continues until 12 February 2022
The Reviews Hub Score
Engaging, necessary description of gendered violence
