By concentrating on their experience, Dalia Taha's play offers a refreshingly oblique perspective on the conflict in Gaza. * Evening Standard *
. . . she [Dalia Taha] gives a vivid account of the psychic damage done to children growing up in a city like Gaza and of the elaborate pretences adopted by their parents to protect them from reality. . . . Taha's point is clearly that any hope of normality is fractured in a military crisis and that, while children are the immediate victims, the besieged adults are enmeshed in their own web of pretence. . . . Taha's play . . . offers a frighteningly convincing picture of the tragedy of lost innocence. * Guardian *
Taha's writing, beautifully translated by Clem Naylor, is bracingly naturalistic, immersing us fully in her characters' tense, circumscribed lives through a series of vignettes. . . . This is a compelling example of the power of theatre to transport us deep into the human reality of a conflict from which, packaged on our television screens, it is far too easy to turn our minds. * Observer *
This debut play by Dalia Taha is an intimate chamber piece, showing life in the shadows of a Palestinian town besieged by Israeli air strikes. . . . It's an undeniably powerful idea that is made all the more heartbreaking by the play's tragic outcome . . . It's a disconcerting, provocative jolt for the audience and proof that Dalia Taha is a young playwright of considerable promise. * Daily Telegraph *
How do you protect your children from the harshest realities of the world without resorting to undue pretence or handicapping their preparation for adulthood? It's a hard enough problem for parents anywhere, but imagine if you were a present-day Palestinian in a town under siege. That's the situation that Palestinian writer Dalia Taha brings alive with remarkable power and insight in Fireworks. * Independent *
