Olive Jar – Elixir Festival / Grand Junction, London

Olive Jar encapsulates the mission, range, and communities of Elixir Festival, on at Grand Junction community arts space until 2 May.

Olive Jar

Rarely is a multi-sensory experience as multi sensory as this.  Heading to Olive Jar, on at Grand Junction as part of Elixir Festival, it’s not what I expected.  And yet I found myself savouring the warmth and fragrance of a cup of mint tea, the savoury goodness of a dolma and olives, while I watched and listened to stories unfolding onstage.  It’s a wonderfully warm and welcoming experience.

Elixir Festival celebrates and connects the cultures of the Middle East and North Africa through arts, music and storytelling.  Arguably Olive Jar borrows from all these categories.  The result of a series of workshops with Grand Junction’s local community, there are a couple of levels to it.  Firstly, a group of individuals with backgrounds spanning Elixir’s geographical range take turns telling their stories.  The storytelling is wrapped up in a theatrical structure (like rice in a vine leaf?): the concept of an olive jar, omnipresent in Arab homes, is the metaphor for stories preserved and shared.  Most of our group tell their story with jar in hand, carefully placing it on a shelf as they finish.

The theatricality of Olive Jar helps to create a flow from these disparate stories.  And the storytelling is animated and direct: the performers even address the audience at times.  Other performers fill in roles where necessary, and we build a store cupboard of stories of love, loss, hardship, joy, rupture and continuity.  The themes are as universal as some of the specifics (Palestinian displacement, the first Gulf War) are unique.

A Warm Invitation

As a community project, it’s fantastic.  You can feel the trust built between the participants, how much some stories affect them despite the retellings.  It also feels inclusive in the way it makes space for different levels of comfort with sharing, and different ways people connect to their heritage.  As theatre it is compelling if in need of a slight polish.  I appreciated the meta-narrative although I was at first confused by the child ordering the speakers about (there’s a sort of factory angle to the set up as well). The music, by Ruba Shamshoum with Georgie Pope and Nuno Brito, offsets the storytelling perfectly.  Its ability to set the mood makes up for the odd bit of dialogue lost to the echoing church interior.  

But it’s the coming together of people which is key.  Director Elias Matar allows each individual to tell their story in their own way, crafting a cohesive whole.  Many in the audience seemed to recognise something of themselves and their families in the stories shared.  But it is also a wonderful way for London’s Arab communities to invite others into a celebration of their culture, history, and even food.  A perfect headline event for a consciously community-focused festival.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

Olive Jar was on until 27 April only.  Elixir Festival continues until 2 May.  More info here.