When Sami Abu Wardeh performed his hit show Bedu at the fringe three years ago, his Palestinian heritage was low, yet potently, in the mix. It now takes centre stage, as he develops his performance style far beyond clowning to address the plight of his compatriots in the Middle East. Its title, Peace de Resistance, implies a rallying call, but he delivers something different: a compelling collage of historical storytelling, jokes about colonialism, and a silent-comedy style that remains defiantly goofy in the face of abomination.
The main strand puts the Gaza emergency into its historical context, telling the story of an exiled Palestinian Lothario who falls in love with an Algerian freedom fighter in the 1960s. The brief romance acts like a siren call to Merguez to acknowledge his own people’s oppression and displacement. But – like Wardeh himself, perhaps – he feels sickened and helpless in the face of that enormity, and loth to abandon his carefree life.
