Amy Lever shows promise as a writer and performer in this show about adolescence and racial identity, specifically Jewishness and Arab heritage.
Her character, Birdy, is growing up in Manchester—her grandparents are Egyptian Jews—and as she probes into their past, she uncovers secrets about her grandfather’s lost sister, perhaps abducted, perhaps absconded. Lever’s play probes that ambiguity, especially through the medium of a recurring dream that haunts the narrative about a desert and a pursuit by men. The haunting dream gets mixed up with Birdy’s memory of a childhood fight with some boys.
All of this is set against Lever’s character’s struggles with knowing what to do with her life. The play is as much about running away from these sorts of enquiries about family history and identity as it is about the enquiries themselves.
Sometimes the adolescent struggles—especially the relationship with her childhood friend—feel a little broad and overwhelm the narrative, but there is plenty of intrigue here.
There are really three lost girls here: Birdy’s friend who gives up acting and then escapes to Portugal having uncovered her Jewish heritage, her great aunt’s disappearance and Birdy herself. Some of the material is a bit uneven and incongruously graphic, but the show raises some intriguing questions.