By Lubna Kerr

IN 2016 I had a heart attack. It was the year my younger brother died and three years after my mum died. It was very effective at making me think about who I am and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life – about my sense of identity and purpose.

I reviewed my life as a pharmacist and focused more on growing my creative career to build another life on the stage. So here I am, a mature Pakistani woman from Glasgow who has become a stand-up comedian, actor and writer. This makes me unusual.

Sadly there are few people who look like me either on the Scottish stage or in the audience and work or stories that reflect our lives and cultural experience are rarities.

As a result our theatres, clubs and other venues miss out on audiences who would love to be there if they offered something more relevant. That’s true of many Scottish communities, not just the one that I grew up in.

That’s unfortunate all round because the performing arts, in their many forms, faced tough times before the pandemic and Covid has made matters so much worse.

The arts have been severely weakened at a time when they are urgently needed.

Part of the solution lies in winning new audiences with productions that relate to people’s own lives, experiences, interests and concerns.

And, from a Pakistani perspective, I can safely say that plays about forced marriage, terrorism or extremism (valid as they may be) do not reflect the lives and culture of New Scots like me who grew up in Glasgow in the 60s and 70s.

Life was about families – their struggles, triumphs and disasters – and it was about identity. These are the issues at the heart of my Fringe show Tickbox – a humorous look at the road to empowerment of two strong Pakistani Scottish women (me and my amazing mum Mumtaz).

Despite these concerns, there are reasons for optimism. Army@TheFringe, where I’m performing, has a programme that emphasises the sort of issues I’m talking about.

They look at everything from the stories about Gorbals folk heroes the boxer Benny Lynch and safecracker “Gentleman” Johnny Ramensky to the idea of “home” for today’s forces children, whose early lives often involve moving from place to place.

Digging deeper, still Rosie Kay is running live discussions involving artists, the military and others to look at everything from the rise of cyber warfare to surveillance and civil liberties. Are our approaches to defence and security undermining the very things we seek to defend?

Eleven years ago Rosie created a dance work called 5 Soldiers – The Body is the Frontline. She now fears that our world is so dominated by cyber wars, online disinformation, manipulation and conspiracy theories that our minds are now the frontline.

It’s a powerful reminder of how much we need the arts and artists, as people who explore, question and expose realities.

They are of fundamental importance as we face increasingly complex questions about identity and purpose – so we need them to thrive and to embrace all our communities.