No Guts, No Heart, No Glory

Aisha Zia

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781783191918
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783196906
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

We are sick of it, being ignored

We are sick of it, being indoors

No Guts, No Heart, No Glory explores being young, fearless and doing the unexpected. Working closely with five 16-22-year-old Muslim women and former National Champion boxer Ambreen Sadiq. This play represents a young Muslim female experience of life in the UK. It speaks to young people and will make them feel braver and encourage them to live how they want to live, so that they are free and confident to make their own choices tomorrow.

'Common Wealth are an award-winning, Bradford-based company who make site-specific theatre events that are political and contemporary – based in the present day – the here and now. Our ideas are rooted in socialist politics, working class backgrounds, a keen interest in contemporary music/theatre/art/design, the people that we meet and an idealistic ambition to shift things. We see our plays as campaigns, a way of bringing people together and making change feel possible.

Aisha Zia is a playwright based in the UK. She completed her MA in Creative Writing (plays and screenplays) at City University, London. No Guts, No Heart, No Glory is her fourth full-length play. Aisha worked with Common Wealth on her adaptation An Indecent Incident from A Nasty Story by Fyodor Dostoevsky and wrote text for Our Glass House, a play which explored domestic abuse and toured disused houses around the UK from 2012- 2013.

No Guts, No Heart, No Glory was winner of the Scotsman Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, 2014 and was shortlisted for Amnesty International's Freedom of Expression Award in the same year'.

As the audience enters the gym, the girls are skipping and chatting, swapping over to work on pads, laughing, having fun, each work with SAIRA on the pads for one minute each.

SAIRA claps together pads.

SAIRA: OK everyone, focus, focus!

HAJRA jumps onto the front of the boxing ring and speaks into a microphone.

HAJRA: This story is called ‘I finally have a story to tell.’

It recalls a time when I went alone to see a show of someone I’m hugely inspired by and what happened when I plucked up the courage to not shy away just because I was intimidated by him and actually speak to him. Because if I could speak to him and the others around me, then I can speak to anyone.

Watch out for the moment when I fiddle with my fingers, put my hands up towards my face but then clasp them behind my back. Because this symbolizes how nervous I used to be but then I stepped out of my comfort zone. I would like the camera to focus on my hands and then outside on the roads and the people.

By the end of this story I would like you to do something you’ve always put off doing, even if it’s just going to the museum you always cross but never visit.

MEHWISH: This story is called standing up for what’s right.

It recalls a time when my sister told me about the conflict in Gaza. I want the camera to stare at me so I can stare right back at it. By the end of this story I want you to stand up for what’s right.

FREIDA walks through the audience.

FREIDA: This story is called Individual Differences.

It recalls a time when I first started secondary school, with no one I knew and I used to sit alone. I thought this isn’t right, maybe because it wasn’t ‘socially normal’ I guess! But actually, I thought about it and decided that I couldn’t care less. If I want to eat alone and sit alone then… who cares! I am not afraid to be me – no one person is the same. If I don’t sit with anyone… who really cares?!

Watch out for the moment when I stand up for myself and pray, as I am grateful for what I have because this symbolizes my religion, my life, ME and what I’M supposed to do. I would like the camera to be zoomed in on my eyes, because the truth, the innocence and the lioness in me is revealed.

FREIDA takes the hand of an audience member and raises it in the air.

By the end of this story I would like you to be inspired to be YOU, to stand up for yourself and be free!

VOICE OF THE UNCLE IS HEARD OVER THE TANNOY

UNCLE (Pre-recorded): MUBARAK! Well-done baitai. It was your first fight and it will be your last fight.

HONESTY

FREIDA: It’s the same.

Nothing new, I’ve seen this one before

Nothing new.

Mum I’m thinking of taking up a new sport. Something new, something exciting. I’m thinking of…boxing.

No I won’t get hurt.

No I won’t get hurt, it’s amateur boxing, and they’re all smaller than me.

OK, they’re not smaller than me, but I’m a lightweight.

I’m not a lightweight; it’s a lightweight group, because we’re all small, no one really gets hurt.

OK there might be some, small injuries, like a broken nose or a splintered wrist. Nothing major. Nothing to worry about, I’ll live.

MEHWISH GETS BULLIED

MEHWISH: Look at your arse!

Why does it stick out like that?

Ugly, look at your thighs, look at your man thighs // She laughs // Look at you.

Lesbian, are you a man now?

Look at your arms. Look at your face! It’s so big!

Your fat nose, a big fat ugly nose, look at your ugly face, I hate your face! Why are you so ugly?

What? Come on then. Come over! // She comes over

She spits. I’ve got spit on my face. They point they stare they laugh.

I hold on to my bag, I can’t remember what’s in it but I hold on to it because it’s mine. I don’t want them to get inside my bag. It’s my bag, it’s my stuff I don’t want them to touch my stuff.

I’m down. It hurts I’m angry I don’t cry I won’t let them see me cry.

Don’t feel pain just don’t feel. I tell myself.

And in that moment I could be anywhere. And in that moment I could be anyone anywhere in the world kicking, screaming, fighting…

Fighting.

TASLEEM LISTENS TO THE EARTH

TASLEEM: When you look at the Earth it’s just rocks. And how these rocks change over time. It captures our history, who we are and where we come from. All that information, and in the rocks. They are not even living things. But they are solid. And they will always be there, if nothing else will.

We can learn about anything, any thing at all. The stars, the moon, the sky, space. Or underwater. We can look at fish, and fossils.

We can learn things. Make things better. It’s trying to tell us. The Earth, it’s seen things it’s trying to tell us how we change, be better. It wants us to listen. I’m listening.

But who’s listening to me?

There must be something else out there, someone else, like me? Surely, other people that get it? I get it.

HAJRA WANTS TO GET AWAY

HAJRA: Today I got on the bus.

And.

Get on the bus.

Wasn’t sure, just wanted to go. But t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contact, Manchester
• Foreword
• Introduction
• About Common Wealth:
• Note on the text:
• Act one
• Endurance