This is probably one of the most emotional reviews I have ever written. It is 2023, International Women’s Day was just three days ago, and I was making a trip to The Vaults. The show I was about to see, Honour-Bound, is a solo-show by Zahra Jassi that explores honour-based violence (HBV) and anti-Blackness in South Asian communities. It was powerful, moving, and shocking. And it broke my heart. And I do feel that a trigger warning is in order, because in this review I will mention suicide, among other things.

Jassi presents the audience with the story of a young girl studying philosophy, where she meets this handsome young man. At first, they don’t care much for each other, but when a mutual friend dies, they experience how much they are leaning on each other, and a romance develops. It’s a story that has been told in different ways all over the world, right? Well, that is until you know that the girl has Indian roots, the boy is Black, and the friend was a victim of force suicide based on the perceived ‘dishonour’ she caused her family.

Writer and actor Jassi puts herself through all the emotions each night, and I cannot even begin to understand how that must feel. Her energy is remarkable from the first time she begins to speak to the moments the lights go out at the end of the show. Simran, the girl, is on a tube and thinks about ‘sonder’ – a word I recently discovered myself and that makes me smile. It is defined as the profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one’s own, which they are constantly living despite one’s personal lack of awareness of it. All the thoughts that go through Simran’s head, from the validity of tonic water to the question if other people’s problems are bigger just for the sake of making her own seem smaller makes her so relatable. Don’t we all have those thoughts? Heartfelt laughs came from the audience when she tells the story of how she was torn between watching a football game and getting ready for a party she did not even want to go – so torn, that she ended up dry-shaving her legs. The ability of Jassi to drag this joke over the next couple of minutes almost gave me hope that this would not be so heavy after all. But the well-written script turns within minutes, and we have to face the deep and dark abyss that HBV creates in communities as well as the additional layer of anti-Blackness in her community that inevitably destroys her relationships. The emotions Jassi displays on stage were getting under my skin and almost made me cry with her – such a powerful display! The soft but strong voice of Ahana Hundal is so incredibly well-paired with the script and sets additional accents to the performance which I highly enjoyed.

A big shout out to the entire creative team for pulling together such an impactful show: Jassi and Hundal on/next to the stage; Steven J. Poland for running the technique and delivering a sound lighting concept; Mariam Abdurahman for illustrating the programme that gives a lot of incredibly useful resources; and Karla Crome for being the script dramaturg that brought this piece to life. They have all done a remarkable job.

Coming back to my initial trigger warning, in Honour-Bound, a young writer explores current issues that should not be issues anymore. Jassi discusses race, culture, tradition, and injustice. In 2022 there were 2,887 HBV related offences recorded in the UK. I don’t even want to start to think about the unrecorded cases. HBV and femicide are topics that often are associated with countries and cultures far away from home, but they are not. They are current and close and all the important resources Jassi and team shared in their programme need to be explored. The show left me shaken and speechless. As a feminist activist at work and in my personal life, it struck a cord. Honour-Bound comes with a trigger warning and the understanding words of the writer that it is a heavy play and that it is ok to step out to catch your breath. I appreciated that.

{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

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