Revolution Days: A timely reminder that hope springs eternal, but diminishes if not carefully fed (Theatre review) 4 Stars ****

Playwright Mariem Omari draws on her own experience as the source material for Revolution Days. Firstly as a humanitarian worker for the United Nations and then for Médecins Sans Frontiere, Omari bore witness to the Arab Spring and the pro-democracy protests, to the aftermath of Mohamed Bouazizi setting himself alight in protest in Tunisia, to people rising up to rid themselves of Colonel Gaddafi in Libya, to unrest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square where the Egyptian protests there and throughout the country led to the overthrow of President Mubarak.

These events unfold through the eyes of Samira, a bright, bubbly, naïve young 18 year old whose mission is to make a difference. Like Omari, Samira is of mixed descent – one half Lebanese, the other Scottish. Arriving in Jordan, she takes us off on a journey round the hot spots of conflict, camera in hand and seeing man’s increasing inhumanity. Initially there to keep an eye on what the Israelis were doing, she hears of unrest in Tunisia and off she goes, us with her.

The tension of each conflict and the inner tension this causes for Samira is neatly poised between the video diary of her travels projected onto the set and her wide-eyed enthusiasm for humanity. Her slow descent into feeling less and less naïve is documented with grace and never falls into a form of pity party or angst which seeks to elicit sympathy.

The direction, by Shilpa T-Hyland is beautifully crafted to focus on the events as a backdrop with the effects of them foregrounded in Olivia Hemmati’s nuanced playing of Samira.

Technically the videography stands out as a record but also as the reminder of just how much hope there was in the Arab world before events overtook them; we are now sitting once more in the conflict of oppressors rather than the emergence of homegrown solutions. It is enhanced by the sound design which plays us back the chanting, the sounds of the Middle East and the normality of sounds juxtaposed with the conflicting shouts and melee of conflict itself.

Revolution Days stands as a timely reminder that hope springs eternal, but diminishes if not carefully fed. Though its event focus is 16 years ago, its message has never felt so current.

Having premiered in the Citizen’s Theatre in Glasgow, Revolution Days is on tour across Scotland 

Photo credit: Sally Jubb