Nowhere @ Traverse Theatre

A Glaswegian Egyptian actor who hails from a line of political dissidents, now an activist who has not only been a vocal advocate for Palestinian rights but also participated in the Tahir Square protests during the Arab Spring, Khalid Abdalla is perhaps most recognised for his on-screen roles in The Crown, The Kite Runner, and United 95.

In Nowhere – less a play than a presentation which assimilates a plethora of theatrical techniques and very often elevates to the level of drama – Abdalla offers an 'anti-biography' while still tracing genealogies. Not just his own, but the narratives of anti-Muslim prejudice in the cultural and political spheres of the West, all of which he dredges into the limelight through personal testimonies – industry typecasting, racist tightening of border controls in the wake of 9/11 – and thoughtful elaborations on history and philosophy. 

The theme of identity is central. Abdalla never preaches, nor talks down to his audience. In fact, the audience is increasingly integrated within his performance: without giving the details away, the pencil, paper and mirrors which those in attendance are handed upon entering the auditorium all come into use, as do their feet and hands at various points. Although this kind of audience participation might at first seem gimmicky, Abdalla’s overarching point with regards to his audience soon becomes clear. There is an essentially dialogic quality reached by the show’s endpoint where all the things he has explained, explored, and examined – not just through words, but expressionistic physicality and dance, music, and videography – have been channeled into an avenue we can all understand. 

The common denominator is identity, something he reveals as malleable, transnational, shared: a radically cosmopolitan answer-back to the rising tides of injustice today, but also Theresa May’s controversial thesis, “If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere.”

Abdalla’s Nowhere is the spaces in between, or perhaps the space where everyone in between can come together, entirely eluding definition by nation or race or religion. He exposes himself as an irreducible melting pot of categories, including something as trivial as nationality. After sketching up the geography of himself – indeed, after the audience has sketched themselves with the materials they are handed – his gaze turns seamlessly to injustices we are witnessing live-streamed on the world stage today, especially the conditions of Israeli occupation. His commentary is furious and eloquent, as those of us familiar with his words and work will expect, but even more impactful when words fail over themes like death and trauma which might be described as indescribable. 

Rather, Abdalla’s performance takes on a physical dimension transcending the constraints of language, as the most extreme emotions do. Alongside the production’s impressive AV, these speechless instances bring into focus ideas about representation itself, including how we perceive ourselves and our identities, first and foremost personal on Abdalla’s part, but undeniably political in intention. This new 'anti-biography' is, rather than either personal or political, a personally political statement which seeds itself in the politics of personality. The product is a technically marvellous, emotional, and engaging concoction of recollections and ideas – all boiled down to a demand for justice. No justice, no peace.

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Nowhere, Traverse Theatre (Traverse 1), until 24 Aug, various times, £17.50-25