Fadi Murad's Come Back Home, now showing at Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 31 August, is an unconventional drama structured with the free-ranging imagination of a poet. The show, which originated as a scratch performance at last year's Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine mini festival, is an impressionistic collage that resists straightforward interpretation.
Loss and the Pull of Home
Murad's central theme is loss and the pull of home, focusing on the death of his mother in a car accident when he was nine. He speaks touchingly from a child's perspective about losing the nurturer in his life, the one he turned to in moments of distress. He shares video footage of his younger self singing Mad World by Tears for Fears at her memorial, a moment that is as cute as it is sad.
That death was formative. Elsewhere in the performance, he leaves the violence and killings of a troubled Jerusalem for the audience to intuit, though he does mention those who are willing to kill for God. This is not a war play in any strident sense; its reflections are more personal and elliptical, even if, in such circumstances, the personal is political.
Water Imagery and Poetic Structure
From passages of heavily alliterative poetry, atmospheric video, and low-key clowning, a theme of water emerges. His mother was a hydrologist, there is a baptism in holy water, a link between water and war, and a striking opening image of Murad wetting himself – a forlorn figure, man or boy, under horrific pressure.
Impressionism can only go so far, and a clearer key to unlock Murad's message would help. However, his gentle, endearing energy keeps the show always intriguing. The performance is part of the Edinburgh festival programme, with the run continuing at Summerhall until 31 August.
