And Here I Am
By (Author) Hassan Abdulrazzak
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Oberon Books Ltd
28th June 2017
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Colonialism and imperialism
Paperback
Width 130mm, Height 210mm
A bitter sweet, dark political comedy based on one man's true story and his odyssey in search for identity, And Here I Am is an epic voyage of identity and self-discovery based on Ahmed Tobasi's personal coming of age story. Combining fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy, spanning both the first Palestinian intifada and the second, we follow the protagonist through his transformation from resistance fighter to artist, his journey as a refugee from the West Bank to Norway and then back again.
Ahmed Tobasi performs his own story, written for the stage by Hassan Abdulrazzak, which charts his journey from Jihadist to actor. Along the way he asks if the stage really can be as powerful as an AK47. The enthusiasm with which the audience claps at the end suggests that it can be. The Guardian
Hassan Abdulrazzak is of Iraqi origin, born in Prague and living in London. He holds a PhD in molecular biology and has worked at Harvard and Imperial College. His first play, Baghdad Wedding, was staged at Soho Theatre in 2007 and went on to have productions in Australia and India as well as being broadcast on BBC Radio 3. He has won several awards including the George Devine Award, the Meyer Whitworth Award, the Pearson Award and the Arab British Centre Award for Culture. He is currently working on commissions from the RSC and Theatre Royal Stratford East.