Theatre reviews: Penguin | The Sunshine Spa

In Penguin, dancer-actor Hamzeh Al Hussien takes his audience on a tremendous journey, crossing cultures and finding the same flawed but recognisable humanity everywhere, writes Joyce McMillan

Penguin, Tron Theatre, Glasgow ★★★★

The Sunshine Spa, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★

Two shows, and two powerful encounters between Arab and western culture, featuring performers with physical disabilities: it’s a strange coincidence, in Glasgow theatre this week, and a moving and revealing one.

Penguin - briefly at the Tron Theatre, after opening in Newcastle last month - is an extraordinary solo show, co-created by dancer-actor Hamzeh Al Hussien and director Amy Golding, that tells the story of Al Hussien’s long exile from his home in Syria, after the outbreak of civil war there in 2011; and of how he has survived, as man with disabilities, to become the theatre artist he is today.

Hamzeh Al Hussien in Penguin | Contributed

At first, we meet him mainly in the vast Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, where he is haunted by memories of his beautiful home village. Yet he is always a jaunty character, who despite his small, underdeveloped legs and hands - or perhaps because of them - loves to sport a smart jacket, with stylish hat and shades.

He endures constant mockery and even curses for his disability, with other kids calling him “Penguin”. Over six years, though, he and his long-suffering brother Wasim build a life in the camp, before finally being allowed to settle as refugees in Newcastle; where Hamzeh discovers that people are more covert about negative attitudes to disabled people, but still often harbour them, nonetheless.

His irrepressible spirit, though, is fully expressed in his style of performance, which involves an eclectic range of music - Arab, Indian, western - and plenty of humour; Hamzeh’s adventures on his disability scooter have a definite edge of slapstick, both verbal and physical. And above all, he expresses himself through dance; using the strength and skill of his upper body to move at speed around the stage, and to capture all the yearning, loneliness, sense of loss, and deep joy of survival, that he tends to veil behind his upbeat persona.

The result is a show - with surtitles in English and Arabic - that takes us on a tremendous journey in just 80 minutes, crossing cultures, and finding the same flawed but recognisable humanity everywhere. And always with the hat at a jaunty angle; because you’ve either got style or you haven’t, and Hamzeh needs his, to thrive as a disabled man and artist in a troubled and sometimes cruel world.

The Sunshine Spa | Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Simon Jay’s The Sunshine Spa - this week’s Play, Pie, Pint show, co-produced with Glasgow’s Birds of Paradise company - takes a more familiar sit-com approach to a similar theme, as Iain, a disabled man from Manchester holidaying in Marrakech, arrives at the Sunshine Spa, a place which he expects to provide “special” massages for gay male tourists.

He is disappointed, though; for it turns out that the spa is a genuine massage salon for women, staffed on this day by Zainab, a young single woman who shouldn’t, under Moroccan law, spend even a minute alone with Iain, far less offer him any professional services.

It soon emerges, though, that Zainab is something of a rebel, annoyed at having to work on the day of a major women’s protest in the city; and although communication between the two is not easy - Iain’s speech is affected by cerebral palsy - they soon form a rebellious bond.

All of this emerges, over 60 minutes, with an odd mixture of real lyrical power and slight dramatic awkwardness; at times it feels as if the play might work better as a 20 minute interlude in a longer social comedy, about how destinations like Marrakech feature in British gay male life and fantasy.

Yet in Robert Softley Gale’s gently effective and knowing production, there’s no resisting the beguiling performances delivered by Stephen Smith Taylor - in his professional acting debut - and by Fatima Jawara; as two souls deeply at odds with the societies they live in, finding common ground where they might least expect it.

Penguin is at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, until 23 May; The Sunshine Spa is at Oran Mor, Glasgow, until 24 May.