In this gripping 60-minute piece, it’s the voices of real children begging us to listen that leave their mark.Rating
Excellent
Good Chance is a company renowned for tackling stories others may shy away from, and A Grain of Sand is a remarkable example. Written and directed by Elias Matar, also the Artistic Director of Good Chance, and co-devised with performer Sarah Agha, this beautiful one-woman piece arrives in London for a short run at the Arcola Theatre before embarking on a UK tour. ‘A Grain of Sand’ brings into focus the urgent, ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza’s communities.
Agha performs as Renad, an 11-year-old girl whose life is shattered when war strikes her home, separating her from her family. We follow Renad as she journeys across the Gaza Strip in search of her loved ones, encountering devastation and loss at every turn. Interwoven seamlessly throughout the narrative are verbatim poems and testimonies written by children in Gaza between 2023 and 2024, taken from the compiled collection ‘A Million Kites’. These voices illuminate the thousands of children whose suffering has been neglected by much of the world.
Agha is a performer with a mesmerising gift for storytelling. From the moment she steps on stage, the room sharpens into focus, and she holds the audience’s hearts and attention for the full 60 minutes. Seeing the world through a child’s eyes invites us into imagination and wonder, only to confront the unbearable reality that an 11-year-old should never possess the language, or the experience, to tell such a story. Agha strips her performance back to its purest form, allowing her humanity to shine through. What remains is devastation, and an unsettling question: have we closed our eyes to these atrocities, in order to protect our own comfort?
With the sound of waves crashing and a small mountain of sand at the centre of the stage, sound designer Nick Powell and set/costume designer Natalie Pryce transport us to the shores of Gaza. The sand and sea evoke familiar memories of joy and freedom for us, yet for these children the shoreline is a place of survival; the shore on which they scour for food aid after days of going hungry, the edge of the world where they are trapped in one of the most densely populated regions on earth, the only place of refuge from bomb sites and collapsing buildings that were once homes. Every grain of sand becomes a symbol for the lives lost and those dreams and futures reduced to fragments of particles.
Once again, Good Chance delivers a powerful and deeply affecting piece that leaves the audience heavy with reflection. As the names and ages of children who have died are projected onto the stage in an unending list, the years 2023–2024 confront us with a brutal truth: this is not history, but a crisis unfolding within our own lifetime. “Greed can change a soul”, and it is our children who pay the price.
Adapted from A Million Kites: Testimonies and Poems from the Children of Gaza by Leila Boukarim and Asaf Luzon
Writer and Director: Elisa Matar
Co-devised by Sarah Agha
Produced by Good Chance
Dramaturgy by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson
Set & Costume Design by Natalie Pryce
Lighting Design by Jonathan Chan
Sound Design by Nick Powell
Video Design by Dan Light
Produced by Good Chance
Commissioned by London Palestine Film Festival
Supported by Liverpool Arab Arts Festival
A Grain of Sand plays at Arcola Theatre till Saturday 31 January, then embarking on a UK Tour for 2026.
