A Knock On The Roof – Traverse Theatre

World Premier

A Knock On The Roof, a brand new, and very current, one-person play written by and starring Khawla Ibraheem, which takes us to Gaza as young mother, Mariam, prepares for war along with her mother and 6-year-old son, Noor. The title refers to the, so-called, humanitarian practice of dropping small warning bombs on residential buildings in Gaza, giving civilian tenants five to fifteen minutes to evacuate before a much bigger rocket hits. Whether this happens in reality is anyone’s guess.

The family live at the top of a seven-storey tower block, which is good and bad. Good because they will hear the knock on the roof first, but bad because they will have a long way to run to escape the carnage that is coming.

Mariam decides to train for the possibility of this Knock on the Roof, practicing how far she can run in five minutes, and what she can carry to safety. Her child becomes a pillowcase full of books, her mother a chair. At one point during one of her practice runs, carrying pillowcase and chair, she is stopped by a ‘soldier’, possibly a Hamas fighter, although it is never made clear, and she lies to him about what she is doing. Why she lies is not made clear either.

There is no specific mention or questioning of the invaders, the Israelis, or of their motives or humanity, or lack of it. Which seems strange to say the least, to the point that this at times feels like a sort of watered-down, sanitised and de-politicked version. Instead Miriam seems to focus on some rather weird subjects, like sewage in the sea, which restricts swimming, or worrying about being naked in the shower when her building is blown up, and being found naked in the rubble?

At other times however, it is more successful.

At one point we are asked to close our eyes and imagine the scene, the missiles, the constant fear, the death. But of course we cannot. And maybe, that’s the point, it’s the realisation that we cannot imagine it that hits home the hardest.

On a broad level, the play is both an intimate portrayal of one family’s experience and a commentary on the impact of the Gaza conflict on ordinary people, and serves as a stark reminder of the human cost of war, making it a compelling and necessary piece of theatre.

For all of us, who have lived our whole lives in ‘uninteresting’ times, this serves as a reminder, to WAKE UP! Before we sleepwalk into our own uncertain futures.

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 14^th August 2024

North West End UK Rating: