Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Khawla Ibraheem’s solo show A KNOCK ON THE ROOF is a fever dream spurred by the horrors of war

• By drediman
• February 3, 2025
• No Comments

This past weekend, I ventured down to the East Village to catch New York Theatre Workshop and Under the Radar’s co-production of A Knock on the Roof, a fever dream of a solo show written and performed Khawla Ibraheem. Set in an unnamed and under-siege city in the Gaza Strip, the fictitious new play chronicles the story of Mariam, a young mother whose existence in a constant war zone leads to her psychological deterioration.

For all intents and purposes a single mother (her husband has all but abandoned her as he pursues a doctorate overseas), Mariam begins the play already in a slightly frayed place — easily distracted and overly emotional. Left to her own devices, she frantically embarks on rigorous exercises to prepare for a variety of “worse case” scenarios. As told solely from a single first-person perspective, the work is an interesting opportunity to step thoroughly into Mariam’s psychologically fraught state of mind. Throughout, Ibraheem smartly stays clear of political debate, instead focusing squarely on the frustrations and visceral adrenaline rush of being in sustained survival mode, particularly as buildings around our distraught heroine are leveled one by one by the Israeli forces. The playwright/actress also vividly depicts Mariam’s strong bond with her young son and her amusingly tenuous relationship with her similarly strong-willed mother (who decides to move into their small apartment when the attacks commence), which only increases the dramatic stakes of the character’s situation. As a portrait of the effects of war-time trauma on the psyche, A Knock on the Roof is mostly affecting. The work is at its most potent when melding reality, dream state, and memory into a hallucinatory brew, even if the reliance on repetition to build tension occasionally gets a bit tiresome.

There’s no denying that Ibraheem is a tireless, hard-working actress, and her portrait of a strong woman at the edge of her wits is nothing less than striking. She is particularly effective when contrasting Mariam’s escalating desperation and panic with the character’s determined refusal to give in. Indeed, the performance is a mental and emotional rollercoaster that’s visibly draining. A Knock on the Roof has been directed with a subtle hand by Oliver Butler, with whom Ibraheem has worked closely to develop the project.

A KNOCK ON THE ROOF
Off-Broadway, Play
New York Theatre Workshop
1 hour, 25 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 16