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Arcola Theatre, London
Producer: Good Chance
Written and directed by Elias Matar
Dramaturgy: Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson
Performed by Sarah Agha
Dates of run: Until January 31 followed by a UK tour until March 28
Running time: one hour
We tell stories when reality becomes unbearable. We may also tell them to remember those who have not lived to tell the tale.
Both statements pertain to the one-woman show created by Elias Matar that deftly combines fabulous Palestinian myths with the horrors experienced as children live and die through war in Gaza.
The central character is Renad, movingly performed by Sarah Agha. She evokes the other people who used to be in her life, notably “sitti,” her grandmother, whose stories of a phoenix, a vizier and a very embarrassing fart lighten the darkness.
As Renad recalls her grandmother’s tales, she lives out her own story, making her way through the narrow, bombed strip of land, searching for her parents in every possible place and seeking physical safety until the imagination is the only place left to hide.
If the reality was a terrified scramble, dramatically, this account is perfectly paced. Its gentleness almost tricks us into confronting what the rest of the world is so often desperate to turn its back on.
The one-woman show format is apt given that Agha’s Renad is a lonely grain of sand. She used to be surrounded by many other grains and they all had overwhelming stories to tell.
A Grain of Sand
Arcola Theatre, London
Producer: Good Chance
Written and directed by Elias Matar
Dramaturgy: Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson
Performed by Sarah Agha
Dates of run: Until January 31 followed by a UK tour until March 28
Running time: one hour
We tell stories when reality becomes unbearable. We may also tell them to remember those who have not lived to tell the tale.
Both statements pertain to the one-woman show created by Elias Matar that deftly combines fabulous Palestinian myths with the horrors experienced as children live and die through war in Gaza.
The central character is Renad, movingly performed by Sarah Agha. She evokes the other people who used to be in her life, notably “sitti,” her grandmother, whose stories of a phoenix, a vizier and a very embarrassing fart lighten the darkness.
As Renad recalls her grandmother’s tales, she lives out her own story, making her way through the narrow, bombed strip of land, searching for her parents in every possible place and seeking physical safety until the imagination is the only place left to hide.
If the reality was a terrified scramble, dramatically, this account is perfectly paced. Its gentleness almost tricks us into confronting what the rest of the world is so often desperate to turn its back on.
The one-woman show format is apt given that Agha’s Renad is a lonely grain of sand. She used to be surrounded by many other grains and they all had overwhelming stories to tell.
Barbara Lewis © 2026.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, plays, theatre • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre