Orlando Fringe 2024 review: 'The Light Bringer'

Sold on moving from Saudi Arabia to America on the promise of Disney World and fresh milk, writer/performer Laila Lee’s family traded salaams and shish kebabs for McDonald’s and MTV, but somehow ended up in rural Florida near Tampa instead of Orlando. A first-generation immigrant with six siblings, as the third-born daughter of a doctor she struggles with culture shock and the challenge of being an individual in a big family; meanwhile, her increasingly conservative parents attempt to adapt to living in the strip club capital of the country without losing the language and traditions that keep women under control.

Under Bill Pats’ tightly paced direction, Lee vividly shares her life story sans any props beyond a glittering gold headscarf and a symbolic lantern, enlivening her Scheherazade-esque tale with expressive physical movement and evocative musical snippets. The impact of 9/11 on Muslims like Lee is addressed, but Laila’s harrowing fight for autonomy over her own future focuses less on politics and more on universally relatable personal disasters, like a unibrow shaving gone awry. By juxtaposing devastating moments of domestic abuse, embedded among warm familial memories, Lee reminds us that “we all have a little Lucifer in us.”

There’s nothing haram about hearing this moving memoir, but fair warning: Lee’s cliffhanger ending demands a sequel, which you’ll have to drive to Fort Myers — or hope she brings to Orlando Fringe 2025 — in order to see.

Orlando Fringe: Tickets and times for "The Light Bringer"