As we geared up towards our biggest show yet, Waswasa: Whispers in Prayer as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival, a number of media outlets featured the show and undertook interviews with our Artistic Director Mohammed Ali and the Soul City Arts team.
Waswasa: Whispers in Prayers ran from Thu 25 Aug – Sat 3 Sep at the Birmingham Hippodrome.
A number of mainstream media outlets have been interested in the unique narrative of Waswasa. If you are interested in covering Waswasa, get in contact with us. Click below to see the press features, these direct you, in most cases, to the source article.
Additional media features include:
Show Reviews:
WASWASA – Whispers in Prayer is an immersive theatrical experience by artist Mohammed Ali that explores the act of Islamic prayer and what that means in a modern, secular society.
The physical act of prayer now extends beyond religious spaces to places such as parks and city-squares; it spills over into our everyday worlds. It is even visible in sports arenas with athletes prostrating to the ground or raising hands to the sky in moments of triumph. Can we draw parallels between an act of personal faith and our quest to achieve a higher state of focus? The audience is invited to walk through a combination of art installation, live performance and projected film that disrupt the conventions of theatre, placing them at the very heart of the story.
Two types of experiences are available. A Walkthrough Experience is for those who don’t get a chance to see the full performance, but offers the audience an opportunity to walk through the captivating Waswasa set; the “graffitied” prayer mat tunnel created together with the community as well as an opportunity to view a reproduction of Birmingham’s world-famous Qur’an. Unlike the full Performance, there will be video snapshots of the storyline played on screens to give a sense of the narrative.
The full Performance is a greater immersive encounter, where all of the above is experienced, but includes a full live performance. The ‘Performance’ experience offers an intimate audience a deeper enthralling insight via a live actor, who explores the physical act of Islamic prayer, the triumphs and the struggles. We recommend the full Performances if you are lucky enough to get tickets!
Mohammed Ali together with his Soul City Arts team aim to demystify this familiar yet misunderstood tradition of Islamic prayer through an extraordinary multi-disciplinary show that will challenge our perceptions.