The Mother Of Kamal – Upstairs At The Gatehouse, London

A family tale takes on epic proportions in The Mother of Kamal, spanning multiple decades, countries, and themes of family, love, and difficult choices.

Mother of Kamal

It’s rare for a play to be so personal and yet so broad in the historic events and themes surveyed.  And yet Mother of Kamal, on now at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, is both of these.  Written by Dina Ibrahim, it is the story of her family in Baghdad in the mid 20th century, and the events and choices which shaped then.

The play had a shorter run at the Camden Fringe in 2023. It now returns with a mostly new cast including Ibrahim in the title role of Um-Kamal (“Mother of Kamal”, a common feminine name/alias in Arabic). The remaining cast (Jojo Rosales, Mirdrit Zhinipotoku, Nalân Burgess and Manav Chaudhuri) share between them roles including Um-Kamal’s husband, two sons Kamal and Sasson, daughters, and various characters from the multicultural/multi-faith, integrated Iraqi society of the 1930s and 1940s.  Early scenes give a sense of the family, including the pain of a first-born son’s death.  Um-Kamal holds her sons close as a result. She wants the best for them but struggles to quell her own fears and anxieties.

As outside ideologies and intolerances seep into Baghdad the family are swept up into them. First there’s increasing hostility and marginalisation because they are Jewish. And then Kamal and Sasson are arrested on suspicion of being communists.  Kamal’s release comes quickly, while Sasson spends years in prison. Suspicion, guilt and suffering follow.  Exactly what led to this outcome takes years to reveal itself.

A Family Affair

Um-Kamal is Ibrahim’s grandmother.  Mother of Kamal is the result of a joint undertaking between herself and her father Fawzi to interview the diaspora of her family and piece together these long-ago events.  Fawzi first transformed it into a novel, Um-Kamal, followed by his daughter’s play.  The personal nature of the story means that it is lovingly told. The level of detail and grounded sense of place might not have been possible in the hands of another playwright. 

However, being close to the source material can also make it more challenging to make difficult but sometimes judicious choices.  At two hours I felt it lacked a little narrative drive, and could have done without some of the movement sequences which didn’t quite feel like the same play.  It’s at its best when it’s a compelling story interlaced with dark humour.

The performances similarly struck me as a little uneven.  Manav Chaudhuri, one of the returning cast members, for me was a standout.  He brings a different characterisation to each role he plays, and a sense of the character’s emotional truth.  Watching some of the other performances, the actors didn’t quite convince me of their characters’ arc over the decades. It’s difficult of course to portray a character at multiple life stages, but perhaps a little more experience is required. Ibrahim has a challenging role: Um-Kamal’s almost constant trials mean great focus is needed to avoid the energy remaining at one level.  The comic scenes help, but this is perhaps a focus for any future runs.

Nonetheless, given the events that have unfolded in the Middle East since Mother of Kamal was first performed, this work is more pressing than ever.  At its heart, as well as preserving one family’s story, it speaks to the ways ordinary people respond to extraordinary situations, the speed at which a peaceful status quo can slip away, and our difficulty and responsibility in doing the right thing, whatever we think that might be.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3/5

Mother of Kamal on until 28 January 2024.  More info and tickets here.