Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Aisha Mohammed.
Time is perpetually offering the same kind of scenario to people, to humanity, it is just the view point and the way it is observed that changes, History doesn’t so much as repeat itself but has the hallmarks of constant rehashing and frightening ability to make us understand that as a species with so much going for us, so much potential to grow and bond, we keep making the same mistakes and wondering why our planet is ultimately doomed.
The race for colonialism, the war for African soil and colonies far beyond the adjoining landmasses is one that the European mind must surely remember to atone for, to never forget the untold damage that has been done in the act of growing empire and the subjugation of a people and the lack of respect shown to their customs and lives.
It is the thought provoking sentiment and unleashed anger that sits at the heart of The Crows Plucked Your Sinews, however for crows, read European Victorian Era aggression, for in the eyes of a young girl having witnessed on television the death of Osama Bin Laden, nothing has changed since the days since her Great Grandmother took on the British in Somaliland; all men in power of their homeland have the ability to become warlords and conquerors of another after all.
Written and directed by Hassan Mahamdaillie, The Crows Plucked Your Sinews unravels the past and colonial war, the carving up of African sovereignty and the effects it had on the women who bravely stood alongside the men in rejecting such despicable acts and to whom then saw their families displaced by coming to the very European Capitals that they were at war with.
The 70 minute monologue was beautifully captured by Aisha Mohammed, in what has been her theatrical debut, a powerful sense of betrayal and rage coming through in a voice that understands the sense of conveying rhythm and inflection to show pain and bitterness, to portray slow released grief as the worlds of the uprising in Somaliland and the despicable 21st Century war of racial profiling by security services clash and cause further division in a place where peace and prosperity should be the only way to live.
A tremendously informed play and one carried with great passion by Aisha Mohammed, The Crows Plucked Your Sinews is a great production to catch and one that does the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival proud.
Ian D. Hall