On Sunday (March 3), Ahmed Masoud’s acclaimed black comedy arrives at Stantonbury Theatre, telling the blackly funny tale of Hajja Souad, an 80-year old Palestinian woman living on the besieged Gaza Strip.
She is a woman who knows about business. She has survived decades of wars and oppression through making shrouds for the dead.
A compelling black comedy, The Shroud Maker delves deep into the intimate life of ordinary Palestinians to weave a highly distinctive path through Palestine’s turbulent past and present.
Loosely based on a real life character still living in Gaza, this one-woman comedy weaves comic fantasy and satire with true stories told first hand to the writer, and offers a vivid portrait of Palestinian life in Gaza underscored with gallows humour.
Masoud said, “I wrote a few initial ideas for the play during that last 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. Back then, I was reading the news every night before I went to bed, making sure I read all the names of the injured/killed to be sure that my family and relatives weren’t amongst them.
"I didn’t want to go to bed, I didn’t know what I was going to wake up to. One day, I was reading a local news website and came across a woman who had her shop open selling shrouds. When asked why she was still working, she replied “Because I don’t give a f***”. So I started imagining her life and wanted to know more about her, I created a fictional narrative around her and how she got there.”
The play comes to Stantonbury for its only regional performance after a London run at Greenwich Theatre.
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