Angel of death in the bloody war on terror
HENRY Naylor cut his teeth in comedy, writing for hit TV shows such as Spitting Image, as well as going on to forge a successful double act with Andy Parsons.
More recently, however, he’s become better known for hardhitting dramas examining the War on Terror and the troubles in the Middle East.
His first play, the award-winning The Collector, focused on torture in Iraq. That was followed by international hit Echoes, which compared the situation in the Middle East with that of the British Empire. With Angel, Naylor now completes his trilogy of ‘Arabian Nightmares’.
This riveting, thought-provoking piece of theatre starring Filipa Braganca is a one-woman show based on the story of ‘The Angel of Kobane’, a female Kurdish sniper supposed to have claimed the lives of 100 Da’esh/ISIL militants.
In 2014, having steam-rollered their way through Iraq, jihadists laid siege to the town in Northern Syria – where the death toll of the Angel became a totem of resistance.
We first meet Rehana as a young schoolgirl on the family farm in a village not far from Kobane. A bright, innocent young thing with plans to become a lawyer, she is peacefully enjoying the Elysium of her youth.
Her father gently chides her ambitions, preferring instead for her to take over the farm. But he delivers a crucial, and prophetic, lesson in her education by teaching her how to shoot.
Later, as the winds of change begin to sweep through the country, her story lurches from crisis to crisis, and terror to terror – being sold off as a sex slave; frantic escapes in the night, meeting up with an all-female unit of resistance fighters (Da’esh fighters believe they won’t get into Paradise if killed by a female).
Then she takes her first life and is changed forever: ‘I’ve killed. I’m a killer. I’ve lost myself.’
The monologue, ably directed by Michael Cabot and played out on a simple set, is hypnotic, and Braganca’s energetic performance outstanding. Just how true Naylor’s account of the urban legend is may be debatable but as a portrait of lost youth, and a pacifist caught in the ravages of war, the show is both gripping and heartbreaking, offering an insight into a world too often regarded in the West as out of sight, out of mind.
Gilded Balloon, until Aug 29