Lamesha Ruddock
Not a statistic, not a sensational headline but a story. Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country? demands to be heard.
Arwa Omaren, a Palestinian-Syrian actress, walks you from the revelation of her unsettled reality to the long, long road that led somewhere (London). Deftly balancing devastation and warmth, Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country? is raw and utterly moving.
Britain currently sits at a tense fork in the road on immigration. Do you know what asylum seeker, refugee, illegal, or legal immigrant means? Does that label shift how much sympathy you’re willing to extend? And why is there a pull to Britain specifically?
Hecuba unpicks this brilliantly, tracing through the persisting shadows of empire and the international reach of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The ancient grief of Euripidies’ Hecuba is cleverly deployed as a mirror, reflecting the string of losses Arwa has carried, particularly the men in her family.
Arwa commands the stage with such agility. There’s a lightness and innocence to her early years in the Syrian refugee camps, a childhood her parents worked hard to protect her within. Despite flourishing since drama school in Syria, destability forces her to flee to Lebanon, Arwa brings a real testimony to displacement; you see her creativity, desire for community illuminate wherever she may be. Her hunger for life is palpable, you feel her drive to find her footing and her purpose and to completely dismantle Reform’s rhetoric of “asylum shopping”.
Given the choice, she’d never have left.
When upheaval and danger comes, are you prepared to attempt the Turkish border crossing by foot? To risk flying with a foreign passport?
Given the choice, she’d never have left.
Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country? asks for your attention and earns it tenfold over.
Recommended Drink: Coffee Stout, Hecuba.
Performances of Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country? have now concluded at EdFringe 2026.
