Sour Lips

Though I applaud the attempt to dramatise the true story of Amina Arraf, a fake Syrian blogger created by American Tom MacMaster who hit headlines round the world in 2011 when she was supposedly kidnapped, I cannot say I cheered the result.

Amina, who blogged under the strapline 'A Gay Girl in Damascus', appealed to liberal Westerners with her stories of Islamic sexual repression and outspoken criticisms of the Assad regime. But when the whole thing turned out to be a fake some serious questions were raised, especially when the girl whose picture MacMaster had stolen from Facebook to be the face of his fictional lesbian counterpart (Jelena Lecic) found herself dragged into the controversy.

Paper Tiger's production - running as part of Ovalhouse's 'Counterculture 50' season - tells the tale through a medley of slick, if often obfuscating, techniques. The company of five sing acapella, rap and beatbox between scenes depicting the "life" of Amina and her self-proclaimed American "puppeteer", including her imagined imprisonment and torture.

“
at times it veers dangerously close to agitprop stereotype”

Played out on a simple stage flanked by two dour brown walls, the action is cleanly choreographed by director Carissa Hope Lynch, even if it at times it veers dangerously close to agitprop stereotype (the ensemble's frequent harmonising of "share to Facebook/Twitter/Google Buzz" soon galls).

About an hour into the 90 minutes we get a lengthy cameo from Jeremy Paxman, as a clip from his Newsnight interview with Jelena Lecic is projected on two sides of the four-sided auditorium. This is likely to be the first point at which those unfamiliar with the story of Amina will fully comprehend her case, such is the muddling of the narrative to that point.

But the many deficiencies of Omar El-Khairy's script are rescued by the underpinning fascination of the story it's telling. And the acting company, led by Simon Darwen as Tom and Lara Sawalha as Amina, maintain an admiral sincerity for their subject. When Darwen's MacMaster tells us he just got "carried away", it's difficult not to sympathise, and whether the level of attention he brought to the issues Amina represented outweigh the fact of the fraud is left open to debate.

But much as its intentions and the questions it sets out to raise - particularly regarding the ethics of social media - can be admired, Sour Lips is unlikely to prove the jewel in the crown of Ovalhouse's 50th anniversary season.

- by Theo Bosanquet