Emteaz Hussain … My Journey to Playwright
October 3, 2008
Playwright Emteaz Hussain is the author of Sweet Cider, which opens at the Arcola Theatre from 22 October - 15 November. Her work came to prominence through Tamasha New Writing, a unique, intensive programme to find new British Asian voices for theatre. Previous writers whose work has been workshopped by Tamasha include actor Nadim Sawalha, resulting in the cult show, All I Want is a British Passport! Hussain tells Whatsonstage about her personal journey on the road to becoming a playwright.
Tell us a little bit about Sweet Cider and the issues it explores.
Sweet Cider explores inter-generational conflict, family breakdown, cultural alienation. It’s about young women who feel they have little option left in their lives, but to runaway from home, the impact that this decision has on themselves and those around them.
What personal experiences have led you to write this play?
I do have experience of running away from home and living in an Asian Women’s refuge, but that was a long time ago. Although I drew on some of my personal experience, I also undertook a lot of research, the characters, situations and story are contemporary and completely fictional.
How did you get involved in theatre and what inspired you to write.
I have been involved in theatre since I first took drama lessons at school. I loved drama at school and I think tapping into my creativity at such a young age, instilled me with a survival mechanism that has served me to this day. I’ve done a lot of spoken word and have worked as a community arts practitioner, before joining the Tamasha Developing Artists programme and penning Sweet Cider. http://www.tamasha.org.uk/developing-artists/
What contribution do you think theatre can make to social problems such as the ones you explore in Sweet Cider.
This is a very big question, what contribution can theatre make to social problems … It’s difficult to answer because theatre does not function in isolation, it works within, abides and colludes within the same social constructs we are all confined to. I do not really have anything original to say; theatre can instruct, inform and entertain. As the playwright Winsome Pinnock said ‘theatre is a sort of moral conscience of a society….’ The contribution theatre can make is to seek to present those diverse voices, those social problems. Tamasha were willing to take the risk with me and provided me with a sense of safety in which I could really develop Sweet Cider, they believed in it and my voice, which coming from where I come from is priceless. I wanted to present an antidote to the story of a young woman who rebels, in an Islamic context, and ends up as a so-called honour killing. I’m not saying that that doesn’t happen, of course it does and has happened, but there are more shades of grey when a young women rebels. Neither am I minimising the issue i.e. an adult suddenly has a change of heart and everything is ok. This is not melodrama or fairy-tale, this is, like I said, shades of grey, without compromise.
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3 Responses to “Emteaz Hussain … My Journey to Playwright”
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Sweet Cider… Come on ladies - Move on! This is the stuff of the 1980’s!
The stuff of the eighties? I wish. Or maybe you were talking about your hairstyle? I don’t know what cave you’ve been living in, but if you think that young girls in refuges, self harming, drug use, sexual discrimination, familial oppression, patriarchal family structures etc is a thing of the past, then why is it still happening? The privileged love to spout off from the safety of their cocoons, telling everyone how great things are today, and how if you talk about any hard issues you’re just ‘living in the past.’ Well, go and tell an asian girl living in a refuge that she’s soooo eighties. I’m sure your lip will be fat for a week if you did. Keep up the good work Emteaz, you tell’em how it is, raw and ragged style, sister! I loved your play girlfriend! Full of life, love, and pain, and sooo much laughter - just like ‘real’ life. In these hard and dire contemporary times that ’some of us’ are living in right now. Peace and respect to you, and I urge everyone to go see your play.
Bobby Bajwa needs to wake up and smell the coffee or ‘chai’. Samina Rehman - ‘well said’.
I saw Sweet Cider and believe that this was long awaited production. It depicts complex cultural norms, abuse, exploitation and moreover the darker side of asian family life and the reality of life when you leave it.
Although I don’t think the ’set’ did justice to each character’s story, as much of the scenes were either at one side of the stage or the opposite side.
As Samina has said, the issues are absolutely current and as Emteaz says there is far more ‘grey’ than what our collective consciences often allow us to believe. We do need to acknowledge in the ‘here and now’ where we have moved to when some of these issues first came to the fore - not in the ‘eighties’ but before then, which is ‘NOT VERY FAR’ Its a very sad indictment on our communities and moreso politicians and state that we have not moved forward and some of us find our communities regressing back to the tightening of orthodox patriarchal systems in a desparate attempt to hold on to ‘identity’ in response to the thrashing that asians/muslims are getting in the name of fighting terrorism. Women and young people are the first to suffer.
Bobby - women with no recourse was mentioned, racism, a gay muslim young man struggling with his faith and his sexuality. Sexual control of young women by any young man who can claim them is so common now moreso than its ever been. The play also highlights forces that control young women limitiing their choices even when they have been brave and left their homes or run away often policed by another set of controling rules, never feeling in control nor comfortable that their spirit can flourish, often carrying scars but still needing the comfort or security of people that become and replace their families. Emteaz’s writing highlights, where further exploitation, abuse and isolation can happen and DOES happen and often for these young women they do struggle with how sweet freedom really is when they have left their families and communities. This procduction will mean a great deal to those who are close to the issues or those who care about them. It is those who will enjoy Sweet Cider. I am sure Emteaz knew this when writing it. It is extremely brave of any young person to challenge and leave these ever-changing rules and codes that young asians have to live by. Suicide and self-harm is no eighties matter SISTA BOBBY. We, especially those in the creative art world and the black/asian refuge organisations and womens groups have the responsibility to keep these issues alive and in the public domain rather (in whatever medium is available to us) than what often suits - which is to put a ‘purdah’ on it and hide it like burying our feelings. This production has given a voice to women, men, young and old and it has not judged anyone in the process. Very well done.