EDINBURGH 2017: BWW Q&A- The Sky Is Safe

Tell us about The Sky is Safe

In 2012 I was stranded in Istanbul for nine days while I waited for an Iranian visa which eventually was refused due to my UK nationality. This was during a period when diplomatic relations had broKen Down between iran and the UK. I'd been due to go to Iran to play a role in a feature film. I had a couple of interesting encounters on Istanbul's streets and wrote about them.

Last year I was pondering a new project for Dogstar and remembered the Istanbul experience. I learned that there were now around 350,000 Syrian refugees in the city and I decided to try to marry my earlier experience with that of Syrian women trying to make a life in the city. In March this year, I returned to istanbul and, with the help of a local NGO, I had the great privilege of meeting and and interviewing a number of Syrian women in their homes. A lot of what Amal says, the female character in The Sky Is Safe comes from these interviews. She is essentially an everywoman, a composite character who embodies aspects of the female experience of the Syrian war.

The play is a two-hander, and I'll be playing Gordon, a Scottish executive on a work assignment in Istanbul. His business has some bearing on the war, so he represents aspects of the West's relationship to Syria and the greater Middle East. We are lucky to have a wonderful creative team on this show - Director Ben Harrison, who worked with me on The Tailor of Inverness and Factor 9, Composer Pippa Murphy, Video Designer Tim Reid, Costume Designer Ali Maclaurin, Choreographer Dawn Hartley and Lighting Designer John Wilkie. The Set Designer is Nihad Al Turk, a highly respected Syrian visual artist who came with his family to Scotland from a refugee camp in Lebanon 16 months ago and our main publicity image is one of Nihad's paintings.

Why is it important for people to see the production?

Well, I think it's going to be a very exciting and intense piece of theatre which I hope gives some fresh insight into the experience of the Syrian war for ordinary people and poses some awkward questions. I think the visuals and the music and sound will be exceptional and we also have a very exciting actress who really has to carry the show with a little support from me ! She's Dana Hajaj, an Arabic speaker from South London. I'm sure she alone will be worth the price of the ticket.

With this being your fifth production at the Edinburgh Fringe do you think you know what to expect from the festival?

More or less. The most important thing is to concentrate on the quality of your own work and do what you can to ensure the public know it's happening.

What makes the Edinburgh Fringe so special?

It's the biggest performance festival in the world in one of the beautiful cities of the world. The city fills with a huge swell of open minds in August and that produces a joyful sense of freedom and possibility.

What is your next show after the festival?

The Sky is Safe will be touring Scotland in September and then, if the funds permit, we're planning to co-produce a new comedy about climate change in 2018 with Profilteatern from Sweden. The show is called Let's Inherit The Earth and it's being written by Morna Pearson, one of Scotland's most original playwrights. She's from Elgin, but I won't hold that against her. We're also wheeling out The Tailor of Inverness for another UK and Ireland tour in 2018. I haven't tired of it, and neither have the promoters by the look of it. Let's hope the audiences feel the same

Timings and ticket information for The Sky Is Safe are available on the edfringe website.

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