It all starts in a flat with a leaky pipe, where two friends are hanging out and chatting. Iqra Mohamed’s character is cooking a meal, and asks Shekinah Opara’s character to seek out the leak in the flat. As the percussion of the leak fills the stage, both young women call their mothers to ask for advice, and these phone calls trigger memories for them of family, stories half-remembered, which they share.

Opara doesn’t remember much of her family’s Nigerian history. She offers amusing tales of her siblings and their busy home. Both women express concern about their respective mothers’ obsession with marrying them off to eligible men in their communities. But as their conversation continues, Opara remembers snippets of her father’s story – something about soldiers and bottled water – little snapshots of an almost forgotten history.

Mohamed is the primary storyteller, telling a series of tales of her mother growing up in Beirut. Her mother wants her children to know what life was like during the Lebanese civil war; that they should be thankful that they haven’t had her experiences. She tells them stories which show both the horror and absurdity of life in a war zone – a brother being shot in the bum is funny … but he’s still a thirteen-year-old shot by a soldier. Mohamed is an emotional performer – convincingly sharing an oral history that has a sense of immediacy and rings true. Opara provides an amusing counterpoint with her evocative body language and stage presence.

Mohamed’s narratives are interspersed with a chorus of musicians and dancers and a poet – these actors are on-stage throughout, elaborating on the narrative with interpretive dance and with utterly beautiful singing. The busy-ness of the stage is a wonderful metaphor for the complexity and frenetic sense of a war-torn country. They create noise (both visually and aurally) which perfectly complements the story.

Coriander Theatre has found a fascinating and lovely way to tell a complex migration story. Using humour and performance art, they weave a tale that will stay with the audience long after the short performance, and it’s really exciting to watch a piece of theatre composed and performed entirely by a BAME cast. This isn’t a perfectly polished production, but it’s one with real heart.   ★★★★☆    @Booking Around   31^st May 2019