REVIEW: NYTW’s “A Knock on the Roof”
“A treadmill of trepidation and tenacity, urgent and resonant”
Beginning the show with a lowkey entrance while the house lights are still up, as if accidentally early, Khawla Ibraheem sits alone on stage waiting for the audience to settle and for the stage manager’s cue to begin. The slight figure, hair pulled in a ponytail and dressed comfortably, puts our bated breath at ease cracking jokes about waiting for the show to start; this is casual, the setup seems to remind us, and this has a start and end time dictated by powers outside herself.
With a single nod, the framing slowly dissolves into Syrian-Palestinian theatremaker Ibraheem’s 85-minute marathon magnification of modern war-torn motherhood, lauded from the Edinburgh Fringe and landing with a palpitating punch at New York Theatre Workshop in partnership with the Under the Radar Festival before transferring to London’s Royal Court Theatre for a limited run later in February.
The everyday existence of a mother during a sweltering summer vacation unravels before our eyes with one news update taking “cool mum” Mariam from the mundanity of her son’s swim supervision to an obsession for survival planning. One fact hangs over her from years of experience: the army often drops small warning bombs – a knock on the roof – giving tenants in Gaza 5-15 minutes to evacuate before their home is destroyed. Trapped suddenly at the whims of someone else’s timing, Mariam spends her days fretting over her 6-year-old son and terse mother, then packing a practice go-bag, running an escape drill, and repeating again, again, and again.
Mariam’s familiar audience asides break the gloomy premise with humor– “How far can you run in five minutes?”-- drawing us closer with a conspiratorial, convivial spiritedness as if sitting with her at an intimate girls’ catchup brunch, except you’re hooked on every word and where there should be mimosas there’s knots in your stomach. This is, after all, real life. This is more than the headlines, more even than Bisan’s updates on your phone. The immediacy of Ibraheem standing, running, panting, fretting, sweating in front of you cannot be ignored, personifying the power of theatre to confront both the immediacy and representation of time and human experience happening on and off stage simultaneously.
Ibraheem’s relentless performance, directed exquisitely by Oliver Butler, embodies a familiar, feminine fear of idleness in the face of the unknown; seemingly, there’s a view of presence as a sort of menacing tax collector waiting to catch you off guard and rob you of “current”-cies that can be taken from you at any time, with the only solution being to outrun your own cursed rumination. Mariam’s early, cursory concerns about her roles as a partner, mother, and daughter are not put on pause by the shift in priorities, but rather exacerbated into an escapist anxious attachment to her future self’s abilities and capabilities. Will she ever be ready? Despite her frenetic hyperawareness that the knock could come at any time, the constant preparation ironically becomes a form of paralysis, pushing her family away and stunting her in a hypnagogic blur between reality and rehearsal.
The creative team displays a mastery of shadow, depth, and breath as Ibraheem’s only scene partners, with lighting projection, and sound taking on a viscous life of their own. Oona Curley’s wash lighting often stays thickly inclusive of the audience in NYTW’s intimate thrust, creating a camaraderie and complicity in keeping up with the character’s circadian compulsion. Projections by Hana S. Kim haunt and delight, the shadow of womanhood and personhood taking on its own life as Mariam’s literal projections of the known and unknown. Masterful and meticulous sound design by Rami Nakhleh unwaveringly accompanies Mariam’s exertions, a steadfast, ominous partner in the repetition and amplification of fear and longing.
“A Knock on the Roof” resonates long after landing, guaranteed to shake, rattle, and reconsider your day-to-day mundanity (or for New Yorkers, perhaps, your day-to-day false urgency). Ibraheem’s solo play is a treadmill of trepidation and tenacity, urgent and resonant as it continues on tour through Western audiences with the highest funded militaries in the world. Ready? Start the timer.
Production credits
New York Theatre Workshop Presents
“A Knock on the Roof”
Written & performed by Khawla Ibraheem
Directed & developed by Oliver Butler
A co-production with piece by piece productions
Presented in partnership with Under the Radar
Creative team includes Frank J Oliva (Scenic Design), Jeffrey Wallach (Costume Design), Oona Curley (Lighting Design), Rami Nakhleh (Sound Design), Hana S. Kim (Projection Design).
“A Knock on the Roof” runs from January 10-February 16, 2025 at New York Theatre Workshop (79 E 4th St). Performance runtime is approximately 85 minutes with no intermission. For more information visit https://www.nytw.org/show/a-knock-on-the-roof.
Khawla Ibraheem is a playwright, actor, and director based in Majdal Shams, in the occupied Golan Heights. She is a regular at many theatres in Palestine, including El Hakawati (the Palestinian National Theatre in Jerusalem), The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, and Al Jawal Theatre in Sakhnin. Outside of Palestine, she has collaborated with many theatres and institutions, including as a fellow at Macdowell and as an artist-in-residence at the Sundance Theatre Lab, where she met longtime collaborator, director Oliver Butler. Ibraheem was also commissioned by Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies as part of a series of new radio plays written by Palestinian playwrights.