How to Have Fun in a Civil War

Written & performed by Ifrah Mansour

Directed By Lindsey C. Samples

Sound Design By Peter Morrow

Somali American playwright and performer Ifrah Mansour revisits her childhood memories during the 1991 Somali civil war to confront violent history with humor and provide a voice for the global refugee stories of children. How to Have Fun in a Civil War, is a one-act multimedia play, that explores war from an idyllic viewpoint of a seven-year-old Somali refugee girl. The play weaves puppetry, poetry, videos, and multiple oral stories taken from community interviews to tell a captivating story about resilience while pushing the audience to engage in a healing process that is still raw for survivors of the war. Toured in multiple states, the play has been instrumental in humanizing the invisible strength of global refugees and vulnerable communities on the resilience it takes to start all over in life in a new country and to build kind caring communities.

Ifrah Mansour is a Somali, refugee, Muslim, multimedia artist, and educator residing in Minnesota. Her artwork explores trauma through the eyes of children to uncover the resiliencies of blacks, Muslims, and refugees. She interweaves poetry, puppetry, films, and installations. She's been featured in BBC, Vice, Okayafrica, Star Tribune, and City Pages. Her critically-acclaimed, “How to Have Fun in a Civil War” premiered at Guthrie Theatre and is touring to greater cities in Minnesota. Her first national museum exhibition; “Can I Touch It” premiered at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Her visual poem, “I am a Refugee” is part of PBS’s online Film festival. "My Aqal, banned and blessed" is on view at Queens Museum. Her latest work is a tiny-house-sized Indigenous hut built, a “healing Hut” hosting conversations on healing and community repair within Minnesota.

Lindsay C. Samples - Director

Lindsey C. Samples is an actor, director and educator having worked with many theater companies, schools, and organizations including Children’s Theatre Company, The Guthrie, Stages Theatre Company, Upstream Arts, Theatre Forever, 20% Theatre Company, Steppingstone Theatre, Savage Umbrella, Off-Leash Area Performance Works, and Mad Munchkin Productions. She holds a B.A. in Theater from Loyola University Chicago and an M.Ed. in Youth Development Leadership from the University of Minnesota.

Peter Morrow - Sound Designer

Peter Morrow has been working as a composer and sound designer for the last eleven years. He has a Masters in Music and Media Technology from the University of Dublin, Trinity College in Ireland. He moved to the Twin Cities from Dublin, Ireland in August 2012. SInce moving here he has worked with many companies, theaters and artists including New Native Theatre, Placebase, Artistry, Interact, Red Eye, Theatre Latte Da, Pillsbury House, Pangea World Theatre,Wonderlust, zAmya, Hiponymous, The Playwright Centre, Macalester College, Wayward Theatre, Intermedia Arts, and The Guthrie Theatre. In Dublin he worked primarily with the company Brokentalkers, devising new works that have toured extensively.

Performed in multiple cities in the United States. Premiered in London, UK on 2022

The play touches on Trauma and conflict told from the perspective of children. Refugees telling their own stories. Understanding the refugees and the stigmas the of “war torn countries” Refugees unpacking their own history, addressing Mental illness & celebrating resilience. Understanding child survivors with high ACE(adverse Childhood Experiences)

Minneapolis artist sew a new somali history that crosses generations. Star Tribune

One-woman show looks at war through child’s eyes NPR New

“How to Have Fun in a Civil War offers a powerful learning opportunity. For children of Somali descent, or other communities that have fled upheaval in a distant land, it makes real stories they may have heard from parents and grandparents…For children with no direct connection… it might help them to grasp the complex events that have made neighbors and classmates of boys and girls from afar, whose parents may speak a different language, and who may dress, eat and worship differently". Talkinbroadway

“That approach gives viewers an opportunity to discover things at the same time the character does or,

sometimes, ahead of the naive youngster. We want to protect the optimistic child who's poor but does not

know it” StarTribune

Age Recommendations

Best enjoyed by ages 6 and up

Runtime: 50 minutes, Post-show discussion