About the play
“Muna, high-spirited and popular at her secondary school, loves Rihanna and seems to walk the streets as if she owns them. She’s excited about her six-year-old sister’s upcoming birthday. New girl Iqra is shy and timid, still processing the deaths of her entire family in her native Somalia, and living with a woman she calls “auntie” in a concrete tower block where the lift is always out of order and the glass in the entrance door is shattered. Iqra is very concerned that a child playing may cut herself on that glass.
But when the girls make a chance connection on the bus, it turns out that they have more in common than they realised: Muna was originally from Somalia too, and she has a secret that she can’t share with her other friends, a secret that stops her even seeking help at the doctor. Worried that when her little sister turns seven she too will be mutilated, she confides in Iqra. But although Iqra’s experience of FGM in Somalia left her with emotional as well as physical scars, she argues that it’s tradition. “We do it because it is our culture. We have done it for so long. It is who we are. It has to happen.” Lyn Garnder, The Guardian
About The Production
CREDIT
Cuttin’it, The Royal Court UK School Tour, by Charlene James, directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, 15th January to 9th February 2018.
Producer: Royal Court Theatre UK School Tour / Director: Anastasia Osei-Kuffour / Assistant Director: Anne-Christelle Zanzen, / Sound Design: Ella Wahlstrom, Light Design: Asuza Ono / Set and Costum Design: Joanna Scotcher / Mouvement Director: Shelly Maxwell / Stage Manager: Nick Hill / Deputy Stage Manager: Mica Taylor and Jules Richardson / Head of Production: Marty Moore / Producer: Joni Carter / Cast: Mariem Diouf and Jessica Kennedy / Photography by Royal Court Theatre