[NoHo Arts District, CA] – Syrian Soap, written and performed by Edib Farhan and directed by Natasha Mercado, debuts at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe Festival.
Syrian Soap Hollywood Fringe Festival solo show blends absurd comedy, ancestry, and identity in a surreal intergalactic bathhouse.
About Syrian Soap
This June, award-winning standup and clown Edib Farhan makes their Hollywood Fringe Festival debut with Syrian Soap, a 60-minute absurd ancestral intervention inspired by Syrian soap operas and set in an intergalactic bathhouse. Eat, pray, bathe with Edib’s bumptious, mustachioed ancestor and find out if you are your ancestor’s wildest dreams–or worst nightmare. He has notes! Receive channeled advice, poetry, and a surprise visit from a traditional Syrian bathroom slipper (which may or may not be a metaphor for life under fascism).
Beneath the silliness and suds, Syrian Soap is a love letter to revolution and exile—an invitation to unlock joy and self-expression in a world on fire. And a reminder: your healing goes back seven generations – but so do your f*ck-ups!
Winner of the 2026 Hollywood Fringe Scholarship funded by Hollywood Pantages Theatre and County Supervisor Lindsey P Horvath, Syrian Soap was selected by the National Queer Theater for the Criminal Queerness Festival, and highlighted in the LA Times. The show is directed and co-devised by Natasha Mercado.Creative consulting by: Zahra Noorbakhsh, Claire Woolner, Mike Rose, and Andel Sudik.
About Edib Farhan
Edib Farhan is a Syrian standup, clown, and conflict mediator. Edib has studied with the Idiot Workshop, Natasha Mercado, Claire Woolner, Groundlings, Upright Citizens’ Brigade, and iO Theater. Their co-created sketch and standup show won “Best of San Francisco Fringe Festival” in 2024, and they were selected by the National Queer Theater for the 2026 Criminal Queerness Festival.
About Director Natasha Mercado
Natasha Mercado is a performer, writer, and director whose work lives where vulnerability and absurdity meet. A first-generation mixed-Latina artist, she creates worlds that are intimate, strange, and unapologetically alive. Her work centers the intelligence of the body and the audience relationship, building comedy through presence and invitation. David Shiner, co-creator of Cirque du Soleil, once called her “fearless and completely out of her mind.” Natasha’s practice spans solo performance, immersive theater, and film. Her award-winning solo works Tree and #1 Son have toured internationally from Hollywood to the Edinburgh Fringe, earning sold-out runs, critical acclaim, and extensive recognition. Across her work as a performer and director, she has received over 50 award nominations, winning more than half. On screen, Natasha has appeared on HBO, Adult Swim, Broadway Video and TBS, and was named an Emerging Content Creator by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. Natasha is the creator of Soft Clown, a performance philosophy that treats sensitivity as a strength and pleasure as a compositional tool. As a director and teacher, she leads workshops in the U.S. and internationally, working both in-person and virtually with artists across borders.
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