What I liked
Simplicity of the stage, yet evoking several worlds colliding with each other. Clear and understandable prose. Character(s) (since they were, after all, the visioning of one character’s many personas in growing), which quickly let you know what was going on with Joumana. The interleaving of Scheherazade with the present story, and the need to shake her influence from woman of several hundred years in the future.
Got it!
The actors were all great, each in their own special way. These are people to watch for the future. I see good things for all of them.
What I didn't like
Almost nothing, although a few verbal choruses got a bit repetitive and might have been cut a bit back (mostly single words over and over). Knew what they were doing, but a couple of times just a bit too much.
My overall impression
Parking (not!) almost won, but I prevailed! Hugest apologies for being late. But the play was a true thought provoker. Shukran for doing this!
I went in thinking it was a generic overlook at Arab women… (mostly Muslim women), but the last parts about Beirut hit especially hard. Knowing so many Beirutis back in the 60’s and loving them, what an eye opener…. always thought of them as cosmopolitan and liberated, and how refreshing for that part of the world. No doubt the French influence after WWI. Beiruti ladies seemed miles apart from all the other Mid East countries… and then the bloody pointless wars started in ’75. Always wanted to go to Beirut more than anywhere else… never made it.
And the POV that Christian Arab women and Muslim Arab women had so much the same upbringing…. being less than.
Well done! Glad I got to see it. And kudos to the whole cast. There was not one person who overshone another. All marvelously balanced and yet individually memorable! Hope to get to meet some of these young ladies in person one of these days. And the gentlemen too. LOVED the Ringmaster! And “dad” in his journey, having to stretch beyond what he’d been taught.
Bloody marvelous, all!
