Sabrina Mahfouz

The Things I Would Tell Youbrings together the works of over thirty established women writers of Muslim heritage, as well as young emerging artists currently leading the way on the UK's spoken word scene. Adhaf Soueif, Leila Aboulela, Warsan Shire, Kamila Shamsie and many others explore the universal themes of love, loss, identity, belonging and freedom in new fiction, poetry and prose specially written for this unique and timely anthology. Edited by award-winning poet and playwright Sabrina Mahfouz,The Things I Would Tell Youshowcases the talent and variety of female voices and is a creative call to arms for young women struggling to be heard. Sabrina Mahfouz is a British Egyptian playwright, poet and screenwriter. She was awarded the 2014 Fringe First Award forChef, and her most recent work,Clean, was produced by Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh) and transferred to New York in 2014. In 2012, David Schwimmer made his directorial stage debut with a production of Mahfouz's monologue,Dry Ice. Her first book,The Clean Collection, was published by Bloomsbury in 2014.

British Muslim Women Write

The Things I Would Tell You

China Miéville

Susan Abulhawa

Henning Mankell

Chinua Achebe

Geoff Dyer

Michael Ondaatje

Linda Spalding

Adam Foulds

Pankaj Mishra

Claire Messud

Kamila Shamsie

Teju Cole

Deborah Moggach

Michael Palin

J.M. Coetzee

Raja Shehadeh

Rachel Holmes

William Sutcliffe

Mohammed Hanif

Molly Crabapple

Alice Walker

Mahmoud Darwish

Ed Pavlic

Gillian Slovo

Ru Freeman

Najwan Darwish

Jeremy Harding

Yasmin El-Rifae

Suheir Hammad

Mercedes Kemp

John Horner

Suad Amiry

Bridget Keenan

Jehan Bseiso

Atef Abu Saif

Omar El-Khairy

Selma Dabbagh

Remi Kanazi

Muiz,

Ghada Karmi

Maath Musleh

Nancy Kricorian

Nathalie Handal

Victoria Brittain

Jamal Mahjoub

Writers from Alice Walker to Michael Ondaatje to Claire Messud share their thoughts on one of the most vital gatherings of writers and readers in the world. The Palestine Festival of Literature was established in 2008 by authors Ahdaf Soueif, Brigid Keenan, Victoria Brittain and Omar Robert Hamilton. Bringing writers to Palestine from all corners of the globe, it aimed to break the cultural siege imposed by the Israeli military occupation, to strengthen artistic links with the rest of the world, and to reaffirm, in the words of Edward Said, "the power of culture over the culture of power." Celebrating the tenth anniversary of PalFest, This Is Not a Border is a collection of essays, poems, and sketches from some of the world's most distinguished artists, responding to their experiences at this unique festival. Both heartbreaking and hopeful, their gathered work is a testament to the power of literature to promote solidarity and hope in the most desperate of situations. Contributing authors include J. M. Coetzee, China Miéville, Alice Walker, Geoff Dyer, Claire Messud, Henning Mankell, Michael Ondaatje, Kamila Shamsie, Michael Palin, Deborah Moggach, Mohammed Hanif, Gillian Slovo, Adam Foulds, Susan Abulhawa, Ahdaf Soueif, Jeremy Harding, Brigid Keenan, Rachel Holmes, Suad Amiry, Gary Younge, Jamal Mahjoub, Molly Crabapple, Najwan Darwish, Nathalie Handal, Omar Robert Hamilton, Pankaj Mishra, Raja Shehadeh, Selma Dabbagh, William Sutcliffe, Atef Abu Saif, Yasmin El-Rifae, Sabrina Mahfouz, Alaa Abd El Fattah, Mercedes Kemp, Ru Freeman.

Reportage & Reflection from the Palestine Festival of Literature

This Is Not A Border

How You Might Know Me

A dynamic collection of three of Sabrina Mahfouz's pieces for the theatre, published alongside a selection of her poetry. Dry Ice A critically acclaimed solo show about a young stripper, which was produced at by the Underbelly (Edinburgh) and the Bush Theatre (London) and directed by David Schwimmer. It played at the Contact (Manchester), the Soutbank Centre (London) and the Bush (London) as part of Madani Younis's debut season in 2012. One Hour Only An 'upmarket' brothel. It's Forensic Biology student Marley's first night at her new job and AJ – twenty-one, good-looking and intelligent – is her unexpected first client. One Hour Only formed part of the Old Vic New Voices' first ever Edinburgh Season at the Underbelly in association with IdeasTap. Clean Zainab, Chloe & Katya, London's best 'clean' criminals and perpetrators of victimless crime, are forced together in an unlikely trio. This feisty trio soon become the unlikely action heroes of an adventure left to men. A short play commissioned by the Traverse Theatre, 2012, Clean was part of the A Play, A Pie & A Pint Season at Òran Mor, Glasgow and The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.

Dry Ice; One Hour Only; Clean and Poems

The Clean Collection: Plays and Poems

Working-class artists are hugely under-represented in the arts industries, facing extra challenges from unpaid work to prejudice, though they make up a third of the British population. How can we break this cycle of inequality? Smashing It celebrates the achievements of working-class artists in Britain, from the global takeover of Grime musicians to the literary powerhouses pushing representative narratives, also showcasing their works. Offering guidance and inspiration, leading musicians, playwrights, visual artists, filmmakers and writers share how they overcame obstacles, from the financial to the philosophical, to make it in the arts. An essential read, Smashing It will empower those who will be a part of tomorrow’s bigger picture.

Working Class Artists on Life, Art and Making It Happen

Smashing It

Catherine Johnson

Pauline McLynn

Deborah Bruce

Simon Vinnicombe

Evan Placey

Matt Hartley

Luke Norris

Sam Holcroft

Dafydd James

Draws together the work of ten leading playwrights including Sabrina Mahfouz, Simon Vinnicombe, Catherine Johnson, Pauline McLynn, Dafydd James, Luke Norris and Sam Holcroft. This National Theatre Connections anthology is published to coincide with the 2014 festival, which takes place across the UK and finishes up at the National Theatre in London. It offers young performers between the ages of thirteen and nineteen everywhere an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study.

Plays for Young People: Same; Horizon; The Wardrobe; Heritage; A Letter to Lacey; A Shop Selling Speech; Angels; Hearts; Pronoun; Tomorrow

National Theatre Connections 2014

The first performance of with a Little Bit of Luck took place on 16 July 2015 in the Theatre at Latitude Festival.

With A Little Bit of Luck

Daf James

Drawing together the work of ten leading playwrights - a mixture of established and emerging writers - this National Theatre Connections anthology is published to coincide with the 2014 festival, which takes place across the UK and finishes up at the National Theatre in London. It offers young performers between the ages of thirteen and nineteen everywhere an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study. Each play is specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department with the young performer in mind. The plays are performed by approximately 200 schools and youth theatre companies across the UK and Ireland, in partnership with multiple professional regional theatres where the works are showcased. As with previous anthologies, the volume will feature an introduction by Anthony Banks, Associate Director of the National Theatre Discover Programme, and each play includes notes from the writer and director addressing the themes and ideas behind the play, as well as production notes and exercises. The National Theatre Connections series has been running for nineteen years and the anthology that accompanies it, published for the last three years by Methuen Drama, is gaining a greater profile by the year. Some iconic plays have grown out of the Connections programme including Citizenship by Mark Ravenhill, Burn by Deborah Gearing, Chatroom by Enda Walsh, Baby Girl by Roy Williams, DNA by Dennis Kelly, and The Miracle by Lin Coghlan. The series has a recognisable brand and the anthologies continue to be an extremely useful resource, their value extending well beyond their year of publication. This year's anthology includes plays by Sabrina Mahfouz, Simon Vinnicombe, Catherine Johnson, Pauline McLynn, Dafydd James, Luke Norris and Sam Holcroft.

A dynamic collection of three of Sabrina Mahfouz's pieces for the theatre, published alongside a selection of her poetry. Dry Ice A critically acclaimed solo show about a young stripper, which was produced at by the Underbelly (Edinburgh) and the Bush Theatre (London) and directed by David Schwimmer. It played at the Contact (Manchester), the Soutbank Centre (London) and the Bush (London) as part of Madani Younis's debut season in 2012. One Hour Only An 'upmarket' brothel. It's Forensic Biology student Marley's first night at her new job and AJ Â? twenty-one, good-looking and intelligent Â? is her unexpected first client. One Hour Only formed part of the Old Vic New Voices' first ever Edinburgh Season at the Underbelly in association with IdeasTap. Clean Zainab, Chloe & Katya, London's best 'clean' criminals and perpetrators of victimless crime, are forced together in an unlikely trio. This feisty trio soon become the unlikely action heroes of an adventure left to men. A short play commissioned by the Traverse Theatre, 2012, Clean was part of the A Play, A Pie & A Pint Season at Ã?ran Mor, Glasgow and The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.

Dry Ice; One Hour Only; Clean and poems

Respect women, respect girls. Respect yourselves. Remember you are everyone who's gone before you and you are nobody that has ever been, so make it count, make it special, make a difference, make people listen, love the women who have loved you and watch us make the world move to a better place. For Layla, every day is a battleground. The pay gap, the thigh gap, over-sexed pop and selfies that are photoshopped – they're just part of the world she lives in. But that world is about to change. While breaking out of her bedroom – and with drama, comedy, poetry and music as her weapons – Layla breaks down and makes sense of the realities, difficulties and absurdities of teenage life in the UK today. Collected from a bespoke national survey, the voices of a thousand UK teens are brought to life in Layla. Their ambitions, concerns, role-models and regrets are woven together by award-winning Sabrina Mahfouz and theatre company Theatre Centre, offering a hard-hitting, yet hopeful, story. Layla's Room received its world premiere at Redbridge Drama Centre on 15 September 2016 in a production by Theatre Centre. It is ideal for students and young performers between 16 and 18 years old.

Layla's Room

Are you not made of Suez silt? How do we know you won't shore our boats by making yourself bigger than we made you? Sabrina Mahfouz once sat in a Whitehall interview room and was interrogated about everything from her political leanings to her private life. It was ostensibly a job interview, but implicit in their demands was the unspoken question: as a woman of Middle Eastern heritage, could she really be trusted? Years later, Sabrina found herself confronting the meaning behind this interrogation, and how it was specifically informed by the British Empire's historical dominance in the Middle East. THESE BODIES OF WATER investigates this history through the Middle Eastern coastlines and waterways that were so vital to the Empire's hold. Interwoven with her own personal experiences, Sabrina combines history, politics, myth and poetry in a devastating examination of this unacknowledged part of Britain's colonial past. Part history, part polemic and part intimate memoir, THESE BODIES OF WATER is a tapestry of writing that tells the story of Britain's relationship with the Middle East in the most revealing terms.

Notes on the British Empire, the Middle East and Where We Meet

These Bodies of Water

I cook here, create here, make here be as much of life as I can because outside of this I'm not safe, I don't know the way. Chef tells the gripping story of how one woman went from being a haute-cuisine head chef to a convicted inmate running a prison kitchen. Leading us through her world of mouth-watering dishes and heart-breaking memories, Chef questions our attitudes to food, prisoners, violence, love and hope. Inspired by an interview Mahfouz conducted with celebrity chef Ollie Dabbous, Chef studies food as the ultimate art form taking stimulus from Dabbous's obsession with simplicity and making something the best it can be. Featuring Sabrina Mahfouz's distinct, lyrical style in abundance, Chef received its premiere at the Underbelly, Cowgate, during the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning a Fringe First, and was produced at the Soho Theatre, London, in June 2015.

Chef

Hollie McNish

The women you've seen play today, we are more than football players, more than athletes and sportspeople of the very highest degree. We are heroines or heroes - or however you wanna say it – and we should be taking our place on posters and platforms and TV stations, changing the way perfect is thought of, changing the way girls can be brought up. Offside tells the story of women's football in the UK through the eyes of a modern professional female footballer as she seeks to find a future in the game through exploring its past. Mickey is alone in the locker room; she deliberates with herself about the biggest decision of her life, her career, her love – her football. But in a world where sexism is rife and a feeling of self-limitation reduces opportunities, fear makes for poor decisions while joy flourishes in the unlikeliest of places. Offside has been researched with top women's teams, Manchester City Women's FC and Millwall Lionesses, where many players, sports scientists and others who are integral to the development of the game have been interviewed to gain an in-depth insight into their world. The play blends a dramatic narrative with performance poetry and chanting to evoke the pace and passion of the women's game. The production, by Futures Theatre, has been developed in partnership with the National Football Museum, Manchester, and the IWM, London.

Offside

Sabrina Mahfouz has been called 'theatrical dynamite' by The Independent and '[one of] our most interesting playwrights' by Lyn Gardner in The Guardian. As a recent elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she is a playwright, poet, essayist, children's author and activist whose work explores a variety of mediums in challenging and genre-defying ways. Her first play collection brings together a unique mix of published and previously unpublished works for the stage, including a Off West End Award-winning play for children; a Fringe First award-winner; a BBC Radio & Music Best Drama award-winner and a Sky Arts Academy award-winning play. From the explosive poetic monologue play Chef to the rhythmic drive of With a Little Bit of Luck, this collection fizzes with infectious lyricism that captures Mahfouz's work for the stage in a variety of different forms, proving that contemporary theatre remains boundless in terms of its ability to spark debate and move audiences.

That Boy; Dry Ice; Clean; Chef; Battleface; The Love I Feel is Red; With a Little Bit of Luck; Layla's Room; Rashida; Power of Plumbing; This is How it Was

Sabrina Mahfouz Plays: 1

Alice Birch

Winsome Pinnock

Bryony Lavery

Katherine Chandler

Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Suhayla El-Bushra

Sarah Daniels

Natasha Marshall

Chinoyerem Odimba

Rena Owen

Rebecca Prichard

Chloe Moss

Ursula Rani Sarma

Shelley Silas

Sandrine Uwayo

Anna Reynolds

Somalia Seaton

Naomi Wallace

Lucy Kirkwood

Jacqueline Holborough

Morgan Lloyd-Malcolm

Daisy King

Vivienne Franzmann

Lin Coghlan

Annie Caulfield

Raina Dunne

Danni Brown

Laura Lomas

Theresa Ikoko

Katie Hims

Sonya Hale

Linda Brogan

Clean Break is a British theatre company set up in 1979 by two women in prison. It exists to tell the stories of women with experience of the criminal justice system and to transform women's lives through theatre. Over 40 years, Clean Break has commissioned some of the most progressive and brilliant women writers to write ground-breaking plays, alongside developing the writing skills of the women they work with in its London studios and in prisons. This is a collection of monologues from this canon. Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women celebrates the opportunities inherent when women represent themselves. Offering female performers a diverse set of monologues reflecting a range of characters in age, ethnicity and lived experience, the material is drawn from a mix of published and unpublished works. This book is for any performer who does not see themselves represented in mainstream plays, for lovers of radical women's theatre and for rebels everywhere who believe that the act of speaking and being heard can create change.

Celebrating 40 Years of Clean Break Theatre Company

Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women

Sabrina Mahfouz

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