Adam

Frances Poet

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781848426979
• eBook ISBN: 9781780019369
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

If you are born in a country where being yourself can get you killed, exile is your only choice.

Frances Poet's play Adam is the remarkable true story of a young trans man having to make that choice and begin his journey. It charts Adam's progress from Egypt to Scotland, across borders and genders, in his search for a place to call home.

The play was first performed by the National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017, where it won a Fringe First award. It was directed by Cora Bissett, with music by Jocelyn Pook, and starred Adam Kashmiry, whose story inspired the play.

A TV movie based on the play, written by Frances Poet and also starring Adam Kashmiry, was made by Hopscotch Films and National Theatre of Scotland, and was broadcast by the BBC in 2021. The film was the winner in the Television Scripted category at the 2021 BAFTA Scotland Awards.

Flesh of my Flesh

A room. A screen. A sense of a cramped Glasgow flat but also the inside of a brain.

An Arabic lament plays its painful melody. Lights snap up on EGYPTIAN ADAM holding a large kitchen knife. EGYPTIAN ADAM places it on the floor and then calmly and methodically folds a towel and places it next to the knife. EGYPTIAN ADAM then retrieves a mobile phone and places that on the pile.

EGYPTIAN ADAM kneels by the pile, unbuttons shirt, lifts out breast and holds the knife to it.

EGYPTIAN ADAM presses the blade more and more firmly into the flesh.

The lament surges.

Blackout.

In the Beginning was the Word

Lights up on GLASGOW ADAM, who takes in the audience. Regards them in a simple, direct and honest way before beginning.

GLASGOW ADAM. In Arabic, our words are either masculine or feminine. It’s a language which likes things to be one thing or another.

In English, you talk of ‘the teacher’ and I don’t know whether it’s a man or a woman – it’s irrelevant. Same with ‘the student’ or ‘the friend’.

In Arabic, the word changes – it matters whether my ‘friend’ is a woman or a man.

In English, when a person says ‘I hear you’, ‘I understand you’, ‘I love you’. They’re not speaking to a woman or a man as they would in Arabic. They are speaking to the soul of the person they are addressing.

I like English. I like the words you have for things.

There’s a term – I’ve forgotten it – for words that have more than one meaning. But the meanings are opposite.

‘Sanction’ is one. It means ‘to permit’ but also ‘to penalise’. It’s two things at once. Opposites that live together within this one little word. And ‘screen’. ‘To show’ but also ‘to conceal’.

I love these words. Words are not always black and white. And neither are we.

EGYPTIAN ADAM, top buttoned-up and restored, joins the scene and defends their mother tongue…

EGYPTIAN ADAM. We have those words in Arabic too. In Ancient Arabic – Saleem ‘One who has been bitten by a snake’. But also ‘One who is cured’.

The ADAMS turn to face each other. Their likeness is striking, in their movements and their clothes. They are two sides of a single coin.

English isn’t so special. It’s still ‘she’ and ‘he’. One or the other. Right or wrong. Truth or lie.

English words don’t speak to the soul of a person. Who here even knows what a soul is? There are two parts to a soul. Ka and –

GLASGOW ADAM. Ba. What has this got to do with –

EGYPTIAN ADAM. Without the body and its shadow which protects it. Without the name given to a person at their birth, the soul becomes lost.

GLASGOW ADAM. I don’t want to talk about Egypt. What my ancestors believed.

EGYPTIAN ADAM. Mama gave me a name.

GLASGOW ADAM. It’s too painful to think about Mama.

EGYPTIAN ADAM. Have you forgotten it?

GLASGOW ADAM. It was the wrong name.

EGYPTIAN ADAM. Have you forgotten it?

GLASGOW ADAM. No.

EGYPTIAN ADAM. I can’t be explained away with a cute English word. All this begins with Egypt. Where I was born.

GLASGOW ADAM. I was born in Glasgow.

This wounds EGYPTIAN ADAM, who dons a shawl and becomes MARYAM.

The Word of Truth

MARYAM. You’re lying.

GLASGOW ADAM reluctantly becomes ADAM AT SIX.

ADAM AT SIX. No, Mama.

MARYAM. You did it on purpose.

ADAM AT SIX. I didn’t.

MARYAM grabs a child’s dress. It is wet with urine so she holds it at arm’s length.

MARYAM. Your auntie made this for you.

ADAM AT SIX. I hate it.

MARYAM. That’s because it is ugly. Your auntie has terrible taste. But if she makes you a dress, you wear it.

ADAM AT SIX. I did wear it.

MARYAM. You soiled it. Deliberately.

ADAM AT SIX. No.

MARYAM. What have I taught you? What is our contract? Say it for me.

ADAM AT SIX. I promise to be kind.

I promise not to hurt others.

I promise always to tell the truth.

MARYAM. And the truth is… you urinated on the dress deliberately. I’m taking away your football.

ADAM AT SIX. No, Mama!

MARYAM. It’s bad enough that we always have battles over what you wear. I’m your mother, if I ask you to wear a dress, you wear it.

ADAM AT SIX. I did wear it!

MARYAM. For less than one hour!

ADAM AT SIX. I didn’t mean to get it wet.

MARYAM. Then how? How did you manage to wee on this dress? Remember your promise. No lies.

ADAM AT SIX. I just copied my cousin. I wanted to go to the toilet the way Farouk does. Standing up.

A moment. MARYAM processes this. Her daughter’s otherness scares her.

Mama? Are you cross, Mama?

EGYPTIAN ADAM is back.

EGYPTIAN ADAM. Born in Glasgow? With no mama? Do you want to obliterate everything that came before?

GLASGOW ADAM doesn’t want this.

Then remember.

Before the Mountains were Born

GLASGOW ADAM becomes ADAM AT NINE.

ADAM AT NINE. Mama, you must crouch. You are too tall.

EGYPTIAN ADAM becomes MARYAM.

You need to crouch, Mama!

MARYAM crouches.

MARYAM. I’m too old for this.

ADAM AT NINE. We must huddle together for we are in grave danger. The orcs are all around.

MARYAM. Orcs in Alexandria, fancy that?

ADAM AT NINE. We are in Middle Earth!

MARYAM. And the orcs are the baddies?

ADAM AT NINE. Sauron is the real baddy. He’s evil, always watching and bringing darkness.

MARYAM. Sounds like Mubarak.

ADAM AT NINE. He is a giant eye and if he casts his gaze at you, you can die.

MARYAM. Definitely Mubarak.

ADAM AT NINE. Shhh, they are coming.

MARYAM. ‘Oh no, Sam, the orcs are coming.’

ADAM AT NINE. Who said you could be Frodo?

MARYAM. Sorry, I…

ADAM AT NINE. I’m Frodo. He’s the main part. You’re Sam. Pretend to be short and a bit stupid but very very loyal.

MARYAM. ‘Oh no, Frodo, the orcs are coming.’

ADAM AT NINE. You don’t sound believable.

MARYAM. Well I’m not as good at pretending as you.

ADAM AT NINE. I’m actually very like Frodo so I don’t need to pretend.

I put on the ring and that makes me invisible so I am safe. But hiding like that is dangerous too because it can turn you into Gollum. ‘My precious, my precious.’ Frodo cannot hide himself for long or he will go mad.

MARYAM. I can’t crouch for long or I’ll go mad.

ADAM AT NINE. You said you’d play!

MARYAM. Can’t you play with your friends?

ADAM AT NINE. Doing our hair and kissing boys’ pictures in magazines? I hate it.

MARYAM. You won’t always feel that way.

ADAM AT NINE. I’ll never fit in with them.

MARYAM. Everything will change when you become a woman, princess. You can’t be a hobbit for ever.

MARYAM becomes EGYPTIAN ADAM once more.

EGYPTIAN ADAM. Lord of the fucking Rings?

GLASGOW ADAM. I love that film.

She Shall Be Called Woman

EGYPTIAN ADAM. I’m playing football in school, running fast as the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Original Production
• The Adam World Choir
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Characters
• Adam
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information