Toby Clarke on Making Fatiha

This October, Camden People’s Theatre will play host to the Handle With Care festival, showcasing some of the UK’s most exciting theatre makers grappling with issues faced by so-called ‘Generation Snowflake’, with a line up including Fatiha El-Ghorri & Toby Clarke’s Making Fatiha. Toby speaks to Theatre Bubble about what to expect from Making Fatiha, how millennials are portrayed in the media and toasting CPT’s 25^th anniversary.

Can you tell us a bit about the show and what audiences might expect?

Fatiha, a funny Muslim and Toby, a fundamental Atheist, have only met once after he saw her perform her stand up comedy routine in Luton back in March 2019. They will only meet again in front of a live audience where Toby will have under 60 minutes to pitch a play to Hackney-born Fatiha about her Faith and journey to becoming an unconventional comedian, without offending her.

The piece will fuse text, Stand Up, puppetry, dance & music.

But not yet….First Toby needs to convince Fatiha. And she might just Jihad his arse instead.

Why are you excited to be a part of the Handle With Care festival?

Making Fatiha fits nicely within this season of work that I’m sure hopes to challenge the extremity of offence and how that mostly sits within the eye of the beholder and not with the individual who was not deliberately trying to offend but simply express, question or challenge an opinion or belief. Offence may be taken during the performance of Making Fatiha because perhaps two separate belief systems can not reach a harmony but rather co-exist opposite to each other or even clash live in the space. Offence could be taken by the audience, by the performers, by both – who knows? We’re just excited to be offered a platform for this exploration to take place.

What do you want audiences to take away from your show?

A free Quran (if we get Arts Council funding to pay for them).

The festival is partly themed around so-called ‘generation Snowflake’ – what do you think about how millennials are portrayed in the media?

Millennials are portraying themselves in the media; Social Media. Some tweet their opinions with a degree of anonymity, limited brevity (although they’re getting more and more characters) and, therefore, lack of accountability or consideration. Some are bragging on Instagram about holidays, celebrations, a “best breakfast with my bezzie” and just forever craving recognition and acknowledgement. Can’t we,for instance, just continue to celebrate Mothers Day without feeling the need to tell everyone how brilliant our mum is in order to gain more and more likes? Just go LIKE your mum.

But most Millennials are brilliant like the previous Generations B, X, Y & Z… and I’d prefer it if ALL media told more of that story once in a while..

It’s Camden People Theatre’s 25^th anniversary this year – what would you buy them as a 25^th birthday present?

Please refer to Answer 3. But we’d fork out for it (Funded or non funded).

Making Fatiha will be performed on Wed 30^th Oct at Camden People’s Theatre https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/production/handle-with-care-making-fatiha/