Sarah Agha in A Grain of Sand. Photo by Amir Hussain Ibrahimi.

Written by Becky for Theatre & Tonic

Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review

With the devastating humanitarian crisis still ongoing in Gaza, Elias Matar’s ‘A Grain of Sand’ is an important tribute to the innocent lives impacted by genocide. Performed captivatingly by Sarah Agha, the one-woman show used real accounts to beautifully yet harrowingly explore the effects of war through the eyes of children.

The power of storytelling is a prominent theme in the show, where Agha guides you through the journey of schoolgirl Renad, who is searching for her family, whom she has become separated due to the destruction of her home and city. Mixing Palestinian folklore with poetry from Gaza’s children in 2024, the narrative shifts between an ethereal atmosphere of faith and resilience and the heartbreaking reality that thousands of children are still facing now. Renad is constantly searching for the ‘Anqaa’, a mythical phoenix that she learns from her grandma’s stories. The theme of the Anqaa is constantly blurred with visual descriptions of her town in flames as a result of the bombs. This ultimately maximises the poignancy of the play, adding levels of escapism in Renad’s journey to show how children have to cope while living in true horror.

Agha is a magnetic storyteller, drawing the audience in with anecdotal tales then hitting hard with the verbatim accounts of war. A key example is when Renad jovially speaks about a girl in her school who she dislikes because she copies her in every way. The humourous story fades when she bumps into her outside a hospital and discovers her schoolmates badly injured from the bombs. Renad reassures her by saying they can do their hair together and make the same sandwiches when ‘this is all over.’ Agha’s delivery of this was particularly moving because it so clearly highlighted how Renad’s school problems are what children should be worrying about, adding a sense of yearning for life’s normal tribulations.

Natalie Pryce’s set design successfully ties together all of Matar’s themes for A Grain of Sand. A mound of sand neatly lies in centre stage, where Agha freely interacts with it as she performs. The simple symbolism of the sand being the only prop on stage emphasises Matar’s thematic mixture, providing connotations towards land, identity, belonging, death and destruction.

Similarly, Matar’s does a good job at reminding the audience that Renad’s story is just one of thousands of similar accounts. Alongside the powerful narrations of real children’s stories, the name and age of each child was projected behind Agha along with the date of when the account was told. The final image of the show displays Agha looking backwards at a projection of all the names and ages of children lost in the conflict, poignantly paying remembrance to the children that should still be here.

Performing at Dalston’s Arcola Theatre until 31 January, A Grain of Sand is a vital piece of theatre that could not be more relevant if it tried to be. When the horrors of war are easily diminished into media stats and news headlines, Matar platforming these real life stories is a much needed response to ensure that the children of Gaza will not be forgotten.

★★★★

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