Children of the Revolution

Revolution is nothing new. And yet, it’s ever pressing – across time, at home and away. This year’s Fringe sees a number of plays look to the past to navigate the present, centring young activists and the political weight they carry.

After a much-racclaimed run at the end of 2023, Apphia Campbell’s Through The Mud returns to the Lyceum this August. Interweaving the stories of two Black women in America – Ambrosia, a student involved in the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson in 2014, and Assata Shakur, the renowned 1970s Black Panther – Campbell explores revolutionary acts and their role in justice.

With Ambrosia’s character “embarking on this at such a pivotal time in her growth”, her revolution is played out via the lens of youth. “She's going into college, she's leading new people, she's experiencing all of these things for the first time. And I think that mirrors my experience,” says Campbell. 

Youth is similarly centre stage in A Fire Ignites. Written by Tara Tedjarati, the play explores the differing struggles faced by women in Iran, living with – and rebelling against – discrimination. “The critical factor is that the characters I created approach their oppression in widely different ways,” says Tedjarati. Revolution is not a singular act – and theatre such as this recognises that. Following 16 year old Parisa, who sets her hijab on fire in public, A Fire Ignites plays witness to how this political act impacts her personal relationships – primarily, those with her friend and her mother. 

As always, the personal is political. Friends, flatmates, and co-writers, Gabriel Uboldi and Sam Rees were living “in a flat we could barely afford”, hoping for social and political change, when they came across the 1968 student occupation of the London School of Economics. From there, Lessons on Revolution was born: a piece of documentary theatre following the two friends as they explore this past and seek hope for their present. “[The student activists of 1968] dared to imagine a better future – they entered into an act of collective imagination. In this way, activism is not unlike what happens in a theatre.”

Lessons on Revolution / photo by Jack Sain

For Campbell, such unity spans across generations. “There’s nothing new under the sun. Everything’s been done before,” she says. “And so, the only thing we can do is look to that past [...] to understand where we are here and how we can do things differently or what things worked.” Previously a one-person show titled WOKE, Campbell played both roles. Now, with Tinashe Warikandwa as Ambrosia and Campbell as Assata, Through The Mud is a two-hander. The play’s very origins are rooted in a history shared; and, although separated by time, these characters’ revolutionary acts stem from a common ground. Naturally, music, too, becomes a revolutionary act imbued with history. For Assata, in the southern states, blues on guitar and bass; for Ambrosia, the spiritual storytelling of gospel, filled with hope and largely drawing on Campbell’s church community background. 

Situating itself within a long and complex history, A Fire Ignites reminds audiences that revolutions reach and shape and expand across time. After the 1979 revolution, the hijab became a mandatory dress code for women. “The older generation decided that, and now the younger generation must live with [it] and many revolt against [it],” says Tedjarati. Much is passed down through generations: revolution, as well as both freedom and oppression. 

Flat, university, theatre – Uboldi and Rees accommodate revolution in multiple places, refusing to contain activism in any one location. “Our show holds space to think about a new future, a space where anything can happen, a space where the revolution might never come, or, perhaps, has already started,” the duo say. The radical possibilities are endless – for theatre, and beyond.

As Campbell says, “You can’t force an audience to react the way you want them to [...] I just want to leave them with a feeling, and that feeling is hope.” Through The Mud, Lessons On Revolution, and A Fire Ignites are acts of hope themselves: creating theatre, welcoming an audience, and hoping that these 50, 60, 70 minutes, or so, may leave them hopeful.