REPARATIONS to Make Edinburgh Fringe Debut From Writer Maryam Garad
The one-woman dark comedy, developed at Soho Writers' Lab, won the Tony Craze Award and Pleasance's Charlie Hartill Global Majority Fund.
REPARATIONS, a new solo play written by Maryam Garad, will make its Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut following recognition from the Tony Craze Award and the Pleasance Charlie Hartill Global Majority Fund.
The play follows Aisha, a young woman recently released from prison after serving three years. Determined to overcome her shoplifting addiction and rebuild her life, she sets out on a path toward self-improvement. However, her plans are complicated when she becomes fascinated by a woman named V, leading her to question whether she can truly achieve the life she wants without reinventing herself entirely.
Set across London council estates, luxury apartments, and prison cells, REPARATIONS explores themes of class, aspiration, identity, and social mobility. As Aisha attempts to create a new future, the line between self-reinvention and deception becomes increasingly blurred.
The production uses a solo performance format to place audiences inside Aisha's perspective as she navigates feelings of envy, ambition, and isolation. Through dark comedy and psychological storytelling, the play examines the pressures created by economic inequality and the desire to belong.
“REPARATIONS first came to me during lockdown in 2020, growing up in a gentrified area where my local park sits between my council estate and a row of luxury apartments,” said Garad. “I became fascinated by the growing wealth gap around me and the envy I felt towards the women I saw there, and I wrote Aisha out of wondering what that jealousy becomes in the absence of love or belonging.”
She continued, “Told through a darkly comic, surreal one-woman form, the show lets identity slip, shift and unravel in front of the audience, asking them what we sacrifice in the pursuit of becoming someone else?”
Developed through Soho Writers' Lab, REPARATIONS examines questions of rehabilitation, status, and personal reinvention while exploring how social structures shape perceptions of success and self-worth. Through Aisha's journey, the play asks whether it is possible to escape the labels imposed by society and what happens when the pursuit of a better life comes at a personal cost.
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