British Somali women's theatre gives the 'Side eYe' to exclusion

Actors Susu Ahmed and Faduma Issa stretch during a warm-up session ahead of the presentation of ‘Dugsi Dayz’, a sell-out play performed by the Somali women's theatre company Side eYe Productions, at the New Diorama Theatre in London. Photo: Reuters

Members of Britain's community of Somali women have cast aside the conventional roles they say are expected of them for the ones they really want with the help of a theatre company set up to combat exclusion in performing arts.

Artistic director Hannah Abdule, a civil servant, co-founded Side eYe Productions in 2019 to create opportunities she felt were denied to people like her.

She loved theatre drama at school, but as an adult found herself thinking: "Surely I can't perform in my headscarf, and if I do, there'll be content at odds with the stories that I want to tell."

Those stories have complex characters that are not defined only by culture or Muslim faith.

Actor Faduma Issa prepares backstage ahead of the presentation of ‘Dugsi Dayz’. Photo: Reuters

Dugsi Dayz, a comedy about dugsi, or Islamic school, by writer and actor Sabrina Ali, won an award at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in August and this month tours England, from Sheffield in the north to Bristol in the southwest.

Last week, Side eYe's newest production Desperate Times, the story of a Muslim teacher, who tangles herself in an hilarious web of lies to try to conceal her kleptomania, played to full houses at the Somali Week festival, organised by the Kayd Somali Arts and Culture organisation in east London.

As part of its inclusive mission, Side eYe aims to give opportunities to Somali women with little theatrical experience.

Actor Nadjma Abshir performs a scene from ‘Desperate Times’ during a dress rehearsal at the Rich Mix arts centre in London. Photo: Reuters

Desperate Times is the first full-length play of journalist-turned-playwright Amal Abdi, while Nadjma Abshir, who works in marketing, made her acting debut in the one-woman play.

Abshir said Side eYe provides an outlet for "the misfits" who want to be creative, rather than pursue the steady jobs their parents, as a first generation of the diaspora, considered essential.

"Our parents had more of a mentality of survival and that is getting traditional jobs in sciences, teaching," said Abshir.

"We've done what we've needed to do and are looking at the things that truly interest us." - Reuters