“The readier you are, the better chance of survival you have,” says Mariam, a nice woman and worried mom trying to survive in Gaza.
Smart, 30s-something Mariam is the central figure of A Knock on the Roof, an 85-minute monologue composed and performed by Khawla Ibraheem. Her solo show opened Monday at New York Theatre Workshop through the auspices of the Under the Radar festival, following appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Dublin Theatre Festival last fall. An unassuming individual who soon grabs your attention and possibly your heart, Ibraheem delivers a sorrowful yet spirited story about everyday existence in Gaza under ceaseless siege. Speaking in matter of fact tones to the audience, Mariam observes how the Israeli military forces usually give advance warning to Gaza civilians about an imminent attack. “You see,” Mariam explains, “two wars ago, they started using a technique called ‘a knock on the roof.’ It’s a small bomb they drop to alert us that we have five to fifteen minutes to evacuate before the actual rocket destroys the building.”
Aware that such a knock may happen at any moment, Mariam goes through a typical few days as the protective mom of six year-old son Nour, reassuring wife to the absent Omar (who is finishing his master’s degree abroad), and patient daughter to an ailing mother. Coping with intermittent electrical blackouts and water shortages in a small apartment on the seventh floor, Mariam constantly practices grabbing a few belongings and getting her loved ones downstairs and away from danger whenever that time probably comes. “How far can you run in five minutes?” she wonders. Stuffing a pillowcase with books to simulate the weight of her youngster, Mariam jogs around a devastated city. Memories arise about her childhood and how she first met Omar. Mariam becomes increasingly anxious as she continually practices how to escape an inescapable nightmare.
A Knock on the Roof is strong stuff. The well-written monologue’s repetitive motifs of packing and running propel both Mariam’s harried narrative and Ibraheem’s urgent performance. In depicting a seemingly frail young woman in baggy mom jeans and white running shoes who turns obsessive in her pursuit of safety, Ibraheem creates the voices of Mariam as well as her several loved ones. Possessing a rich, alto voice matching her dark-eyed looks, Ibraheem speaks with a Middle Eastern accent that may be challenging for some members of the audience to comprehend, likely depending on where they are seated at New York Theatre Workshop. (During certain passages of the performance, I was losing every fourth or fifth word.)
It is surprising that Oliver Butler, the eminent director who is credited also as a developer of the play, has fielded a production here that’s a tad overelaborate in design and yet suffers from acoustical issues. Scenic designer Frank J Oliva ostensibly intends to make NYTW’s spacious proscenium performance space seem more intimate by installing an artificial brick wall at mid-stage and adding two tiers of audience seating along both sides of the stage. This configuration permits lighting designer Oona Curley and projection designer Hana S. Kim to throw scary shadows and images into the narrative at closer circumstances to the audience. Rami Nakhleh, the sound designer, provides a subtly disturbing soundscape invoking industrial and ordnance noises. Still, one wonders whether all of these aspects of production enhance or to some extent actually muffle the impact of Ibraheem’s stark story and performance, especially when her words are not always intelligible to everyone in the theater.
A Knock on the Roof opened January 27, 2025, at New York Theatre Workshop and runs through February 16. Tickets and information: nytw.org
