Bethlehem Calling @ Tramway, Glasgow, 25 Jan

In 2002, English teacher Suzy Atallah instructed schoolgirls of St Joseph’s Catholic School in Bethlehem to keep diaries for class. Hana Greer, Yolanda Mitchell, and Aisha Lawal animate these diary entries tonight, as part of Bethlehem Calling, by enacting the girls’ self-documented experiences – word-for-word – during the Second Intifada. A live band captures and interacts with this re-enactment of Palestinian girlhood. The band consists of a percussionist (Firas Khnaisser), drummer (Paul Thomson), bassist (Lewis Cook), and guitarist (Chizu Anucha) who harmonise with the Arab Orthodox Scout Pipers of Palestine, and Palestinian flautist Hala Jaber to bring a part of Palestine to Celtic Connections.

This is a production for all ages, spawned from a widely collaborative effort across professions, styles, and locations across the globe. It alternates between the diaries’ enactments and the live band. The girls’ lyrics are charming, witty, and real, and the music moves synergistically. Crescendos rise as the diaries grow enraged. The band exhibits an impressive sonic range that channels the girls’ imaginations and grounds their shared reality. A sense of urgency imbues the room. It does not detract from the audience’s engagement with the lyrics’ temporal resonance or that of the reciprocal musical rhythm. The live music embellishes the enacted streams of consciousness and vividly demands the audience’s attention. In this room, words are fact, and music is feeling.

Sounds of Palestine are translated onto the stage via instruments of voice, flute, and pipes. The percussion stabilises the narrative but also adds an experimental touch. It steers clear of cacophonous sound by exacting the tempo and subsequently catalyses a vigorous rush through the room. While the flute and pipes preserve native truth, the drums and strings reinvigorate the narrative.

Image: Bethlehem Calling @ Tramway, Glasgow, 25 Jan by Jess Shurte for Celtic Connections

Carefully orchestrated renditions of several familiar national tunes can be heard once, twice, more than three times. These are melodies that usually flow through the walls of my childhood home and Palestinian establishments and are sung in both the victory and mourning of the homeland. The percussion and bassline amplify these traditional melodies with an intensity achieved by the pure and unfading entwinement of Scottish and Palestinian sounds. The opportunity to include additional traditional Palestinian instruments, like the oud or the nay, is missed. These instruments often lend the sweet melancholic tone that would mirror the tune of the endured Palestinian struggle woven through the girls’ accounts. Nevertheless, the synergy of musical and theatrical elements kindles a spirit in the air heavily borne of communal mobilisation and hope.

One of the girls’ entries reads: “I feel like someone is listening, the world knows what we are going through.” The audience stagnantly witnesses, yet the production works to instill hopefulness and not helplessness. The girls’ words roar with undeniable truth, amplified by the certainty in each cymbal crash and the persistence of the pipers’ melodies.  

The girls’ words are as poetic as they are relevant. It is a gift, marred with young trauma and stained with innocent blood, to hear these provocative lines that need no musical accompaniment to render them striking. But it certainly adds a raw intensity which cuts through the immersive performativity.

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Celtic Connections runs across various venues in Glasgow until 2 Feb

celticconnections.com