Maryam Garad brings the award-winning solo show REPARATIONS to the Edinburgh Fringe, a bold and darkly comic exploration of identity, class and belonging. The production arrives at Pleasance Courtyard following major industry recognition.
Set across London estates, prison cells and luxury penthouses, REPARATIONS follows Aisha’s journey as they attempt to rebuild their life and carve out a new identity. The show combines biting humour with psychological depth to examine ambition, envy and the need to be seen.
REPARATIONS runs from 5–30 August (excluding 17 and 24) at 14:00 at Pleasance Courtyard (Above), Edinburgh. Tickets are available here
You’re the writer and performer of REPARATIONS at Pleasance Courtyard (Above), what can you tell us about the show?
REPARATIONS is a sharp dark comedy about class, obsession and the lengths people go to be seen.
It follows Aisha, a petty shoplifter fresh out of prison who becomes fixated on V, a wealthy woman living the kind of glamorous, effortless life she’s always envied.
What starts as admiration quickly spirals into obsession, and Aisha begins to convince herself that true healing might mean stealing a wealthy woman’s life.
In her pursuit of reinvention, Aisha gradually sheds everything that makes her who she is.
The show explores social climbing, influencer culture and the dangerous myth that anyone can reinvent themselves if they just try hard enough. It’s funny, uncomfortable, chaotic and at times a little bit unsettling.
The play explores themes of wealth disparity, identity and obsession, what inspired you to tell Aisha’s story?
The idea came during lockdown, when the only place to go was the park. My council estate sits opposite rows of million-pound homes, separated only by a stretch of grass.
I became fascinated by the jealousy I felt and started wondering what that jealousy might look like if someone had nothing left to lose.
I kept thinking about how physically close those two worlds were, yet how far apart they seemed.
At the same time, I was thinking a lot about social media and influencer culture. We’re constantly being shown aspirational versions of other people’s lives and encouraged to compare ourselves to them.
I became interested in what happens when that desire curdles into obsession, and what it takes for someone to believe the only way into the life they want is to steal it.
REPARATIONS blends dark comedy with psychological tension, how did you approach balancing humour with the more challenging themes?
Humour felt essential. I had a lot to say about class, aspiration and what it means to feel like an outsider, but comedy felt like the most effective way in.
Aisha is deeply flawed, but she’s also funny, charismatic and endlessly inventive. Comedy allows an audience to lower their guard and recognise parts of themselves in someone they might otherwise judge.
The show deals with some difficult themes, but I never wanted it to feel heavy-handed. Life is funny, even when it’s falling apart.
Some of the darkest moments in REPARATIONS are also the funniest, and that contradiction felt true to both Aisha and the world she’s trying so desperately to escape.
The show is a one-person performance, how does that format shape the way the story unfolds on stage?
I think the one-person format allows the audience to become incredibly intimate with Aisha. The show opens with her teasing the audience about how “a girl from ends” ended up back in prison after apparently having it all.
From that moment on, we’re inside her version of events, experiencing the story through her perspective, her logic and her retelling of what happened.
Because Aisha is the only person on stage, she gets to control the narrative. She presents herself as the hero, the victim and sometimes even the villain of her own story.
As an audience, you’re constantly trying to work out how much of what she’s telling you is true and how much is performance.
She’s an unreliable narrator, but she’s also incredibly charismatic, so you want to believe her.
The format allows her to reinvent herself in real time, blurring the line between truth and fantasy. As her obsession with V deepens, that carefully constructed version of events begins to crack, creating both the tension and comedy at the heart of the show.
The story examines what happens when someone tries to reinvent themself in a system that offers no clean slate, what conversations do you hope audiences leave with?
I hope audiences leave talking about class and who gets access to opportunity, but I also hope they leave questioning some of the stories we’re told about success and self-improvement.
I think everyone feels the pressure to make something of themselves. While most of us wouldn’t make the choices Aisha makes, I think many people will recognise something familiar in her desire to be seen, valued and given the chance to build a better life.
I’d also love the show to encourage a little more empathy towards people who have experienced incarceration or the justice system.
Aisha has made mistakes, but she’s also navigating a world that constantly defines her by those mistakes and offers very few opportunities to start again.
If audiences can recognise parts of themselves in her ambition, insecurity or longing, maybe they’ll be more willing to extend grace to those whose lives have taken a different path.
More than anything, I hope people leave arguing about Aisha. Whether they sympathise with her, condemn her or recognise something of themselves in her, I think she’s a character people will want to discuss.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see REPARATIONS?
If you’ve ever been consumed by jealousy for something or someone, this show is for you.
Come if you like dark comedy, morally questionable women, social satire and stories about people making very bad decisions for reasons that kind of make sense.
“The show explores social climbing, influencer culture and the dangerous myth that anyone can reinvent themselves if they just try hard enough.”
