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“I am here because you were there.”
In case you’re wondering why a Kuwaiti-born Irish-Palestinian actor and comedian would spend his August in Scotland. Yes. You read that sentence correctly. Sami Abu Wardeh’s father tried to return to Palestine in 1967 to fight to get the family’s land back, but his convoy was turned back instead at the Jordanian border. And his mother is a Catholic from Liverpool, whose own parents were born in Ireland before that island’s independence. So his complicated lineage is all due to Britain’s past imperial policies.
All of this, and somehow, he can still poke fun at himself for existing in exile as a light-skinned man who dresses “like an Iranian arms dealer.”
To be certain, the bulk of his performance takes us back 177 years to demonstrate how many generations of trauma have resulted from British and French colonizers, jumping back and forth in time recounting moments in revolution from 1848 and 1961, across the Mediterranean from Algeria to Palestine. And he notes the irony of the first time he finally got to see Palestine’s West Bank in person, holding a British passport and a tourist visa and requiring both to visit his ancestral homeland.
But before you can feel too down about the current state of affairs, and realize just how far back it all goes, Wardeh will break the tension with hand puppets, singing, guitar playing and flamboyant dancing.
He does everything but lead the audience out to Bristo Square to spread the good word of resistance and revolution. Though I wouldn’t fault him if he did. It’s not the funniest show you’ll see this Fringe, but it just may be the most vital show you could and should see.
Sami Abu Wardeh: PALESTINE: PEACE DE RESISTANCE plays Pleasance Ace Dome through Aug. 23, 2025.
