A Knock on the Roof review – slowly searing account of life lived in a state of constant terror | The Guardian
f you had five to 15 minutes to flee your home before a bomb flattened it, what would you take? How would you get your family out of a seventh-floor flat? How fast could you run? These hypothetical questions take on chilling reality for a Palestinian woman living under Israeli occupation in Gaza. Khawla Ibraheem’s unnervingly funny (at first) and slowly searing monologue could not be more relevant, although it was first conceived in 2014. That it feels so urgent more than a decade on is all the more tragic. Read more -
A Knock on the Roof theatre review: powerful portrait of a woman under threat of bombardment | Financial Times
f you had five to 15 minutes to flee your home before a bomb flattened it, what would you take? How would you get your family out of a seventh-floor flat? How fast could you run? These hypothetical questions take on chilling reality for a Palestinian woman living under Israeli occupation in Gaza. Khawla Ibraheem’s unnervingly funny (at first) and slowly searing monologue could not be more relevant, although it was first conceived in 2014. That it feels so urgent more than a decade on is all the more tragic. Read mor..
Interview: A Knock on the Roof | Everything Theatre
A Knock on the Roof is an unforgettable play about obsession, survival and everyday life in Gaza. It follows Mariam as she rehearses for the appearance of small warning bombs – a knock on the roof – which give tenants in Gaza 5-15 minutes to evacuate before their home is destroyed.
In this syndicated interview, director Oliver Butler and writer/ performer Khawla Ibraheem discuss the process of creating and researching this show in 2014, and its journey and development since. They also share more about how they make work together, including discussing how creating the character of Mariam was central in creating a piece that could be connected to by many. Read more..
A Snapshot of a Mother’s Life in Gaza Under Occupation | The Nation
Yet there is an unexpected playfulness to Ibraheem’s performance—she tells wry jokes and bounds energetically from place to place—that prevents it from slipping into bathos or didacticism. She succeeds as well in rendering the voices of Mariam’s mother, son, and husband, imbuing them with life, like a friend telling you a story and spicing it up with impressions. She adopts a comic, exaggerated voice when mimicking Mariam’s mother’s speech. She whinges, like a 6-year-old, when Nour is speaking. The intimate setting, at the New York Theatre Workshop in the East Village, highlights her strengths as an actor. - Read more..
Edinburgh Fringe theatre reviews: A Knock On The Roof | The Scotsman
War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, sang a generation, back in 1969.
The sad truth about war, though, is that it is good for some, including failing authoritarian rulers who want to tighten their grip on power, and the mighty arms industry; and in a year when it has barely been possible to watch a television news bulletin without witnessing hideous images of conflict and destruction from Ukraine, Gaza, and beyond- Read more..
‘During wartime, you also do laundry’: a new play brings the experience of war in Gaza to the US | The Guardian
“How far can you run in five minutes?”
It’s a critical question the actor and writer Khawla Ibraheem asks the audience during her solo show A Knock on the Roof. The play follows Mariam, played by Ibraheem, a young mother training to survive an Israeli bombing in Gaza.
“A quarter of a mile,” someone replies.
Mariam meditates for a beat. “That’s really slow, you know,” she says as the audience laughs. Read more..
In Khawla Ibraheem’s ‘A Knock on the Roof,’ Humor Is a Constant Salve Amid the Horrors of War | The New York Sun
Ibraheem does an excellent job of conveying Mariam’s suffocating life in Gaza. On one of her practice runs, she is confronted with a gun-wielding man who admonishes her to cover her hair. When she returns, her mother accuses her of sneaking off in the night to be with a lover. Oppressed on the ground and menaced from above, Mariam is squeezed from all sides — a pressure that forges a small gem of a performance. Read more..
‘A Knock on the Roof’ is a tragic, heart-pounding portrait of war in Gaza | The Forward
Miming the act of packing a suitcase for her six-year-old son, Nour, Mariam asks the audience what items they would bring with them if they had to escape their homes. In another scene, Mariam sets a timer to help her sprint out after the knock on the roof, reminding herself to “Act normal.” When I saw the play Sunday, an audience member’s phone rang mid-act. “If you need to answer it, answer it,” Mariam told him, still fully in character. “Act normal.” Read more -
A Knock on the Roof – Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin Theatre Festival 2024 | The reviews Hub
Channelling her fear and paranoia in an ironic subversion of obsessive exercise culture, she tests herself to see how far she can run in her allotted 5 minutes with a pillow of belongings that weighs the same as Noor. The repetition of this act is the core of the piece, and within it Ibraheem’s gifts as a performer and writer come to the fore; when she realises she has only run 300 metres in 5 minutes, she tells us she is “embarrassed… and dead” Read more..