Entries by midetheatre@gmail.com

Intersection

July 29, 2021 /0 Comments/in , , , /by

The interactive play Intersection sheds light on coexistence and social integration and promotes understanding between Syrian refugees and local communities. The performance revolves around a filmmaker who interviews Syrian and Jordanian actors to create a film about life in Jordan. The audience learns about the difficulties and challenges faced by Syrian refugees, specific areas of conflict, and how they are resolved to achieve social cohesion. The first scene depicts the conflict that the emigrants face in deciding whether to return to their country or stay in the host country. The second scene revolves around the idea of dividing the Arab countries and the distribution of quotas. The third scene presents the challenges emigrants face in terms of residence, work, and education as well as the problems faced by the host country’s communities. In the fourth scene, a man and his wife disagree over hosting one of the Syrian refugees at their home. The final scene focuses on the problems of the border. Ultimately, none of the actors are happy with the director and they decide to quit, but as they begin to leave they are reminded of the symbolic tree onstage, representing life, hope, heritage, and roots.

Memoirs of A Woman

July 29, 2021 /0 Comments/in , , , /by

Memoirs of a Woman narrates the story of a woman’s journey from the dream of a happy home to the nightmare of domestic violence. The play utilizes interactive theater methodology, and tackles the issue of mental and physical abuse inflicted upon women and its effect on the family unit. Through audience participation, Memoirs of a Woman explores the ways and means to prevent domestic violence.

The Incident

July 29, 2021 /0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

The play revolves around a trivial incident that happens to the main character Salma, this incident will change her destiny and her priorities in life and eventually her attitude towards her political stand and involvement. Salma a 35 year old famous Arab actress who is preparing herself to travel to Europe to be honored for her work and achievements hits her eye and left face area with her car door by mistake as she was going to the embassy to start the long visa process. She is informed by her assistant about a schedule change to travel earlier. During the car incident, all her documents including passport, birth certificate, and her Jordanian ID card get lost. To retrieve copies of the documents, Salma has to visit a set of government entities where she experiences a set of incidents that are transformative to her individualism versus the collective activism. She finds herself in a demonstration, then in a reform dialogue mini-conference, then in the artists union, etc, until she reaches the Ministry of Interior where she says out loud her final political statement about revolutions and the power of the people in the Arab region.

Balance

July 27, 2021 /0 Comments/in , , , /by

In an ironic style, the playwright makes a carnival of diverse characters who all suffer from the lack of happiness. Every characters appears with its own specific monologue/experience, yet the same character re-emerges again later adding new layers to its tragedy and responding to the issues of the other characters. Almost in a bleak way, every character tries to live with its own lifelessness. In a society where everything seems to be fake, the human existence is void of humanness and of any hope in the future. Hope becomes a sarcastic bleak song delivered during the play. The magical mixture for happiness seems to be the mixture of those characters, who can only be happy by forcing it or faking it. It is a play that highlights the tragic situation of most of young Egyptians who cannot find a future to aspire to, nor hope. The depression of a potential driving force in Egypt, puts an end to the state-diffused illusion that everything here is perfect!

The Right Move

February 23, 2021 /0 Comments/in , , /by

The Right Move deals with the issues of Palestinian women in the Labor market, and work places. It tackles the women’s concerns, problems, and unfairness in dealing with their abilities. It sheds light on the issues of the gap between the wages of women and men in the labor market; the unemployment and the lower professional development opportunities for women than men.

Ishtar in Baghdad

February 23, 2021 /0 Comments/in , , /by

Ishtar in Baghdad focuses on female detainees. The play is based on a real incident in 2004 in which female Iraqi prisoners were insulted, beaten and raped. One of the prisoners managed to smuggle a letter to her tribe and urged them to bomb the jail. This coded letter meant that they had been raped and thereby dishonoured, and the only way to purify them was to kill them. The script is a dramatical fantasy, as the events are told by Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of war, sex, beauty and fertility, and her lover Tammuz, the god of food and nature. The two deities descend to Baghdad in 2004 to share with Iraqis their descendants the calamities of war. Ishtar is caught by the US marines and imprisoned in Abu Ghraib prison where she meets Iraqi women detainees. As Ishtar gets into the cell, she witnesses women’s miseries. They are all naked, curled in one corner; they are arguing about the way to purify themselves from this disgrace.

Nooria

February 23, 2021 /0 Comments/in , , /by

Nooria is about a female corpse-washer, whose work is to wash dead female bodies before they are placed in their graves. Nooria meets Death as a male figure and, through an external monologue, starts a ghostly dialogue. Nooria recalls milestones in her life: her marriage to a soldier who went to the Iraq–Iran War and never came back; the financial hardship that she and her young child suffered during the economic sanctions; the patriarchal and systematic oppression practised upon her as a lonely woman with a young child. Nooria was not aware that Death has come not for her but for her son, as he was about to die in a bomb explosion. In a fantastical move, Nooria decides to take her son back into her belly to protect him from Death, and covers her body with one of the shrouds around her. The play utilises shadow theatre as a background to Nooria’s grotesque monologue, and the choreographers behind the huge translucent screens reflect her frustration, anxiety and fear.

The Blue Pink

January 12, 2021 /0 Comments/in , , /by

A journalist is investigating story of Shahrzad, a transgender woman killed by her son through interviews with her transgender friends and other acquaintances including a relative, a social worker, a child labour and her housemate who is a sex worker. Shahrzad formerly known as Majid has a difficult time expressing her sexual identity since childhood until marriage, which she breaks off and leaving for the big city of Tehran without knowing that she has left a son behind. She is living in a trans community and finally able to obtain money and legal permits for sex change operation, she is happily married to a transgender man but after a long journey of transformation her past comes to hunts her. While her husband, friends narrates Shahrsad life they also unravels their own sad tales of discovery, harsh cruelties in the society and transformation and even recounts the history of Khomeini’s fatwa on sex reassignment surgery. These characters have faced common conditions and plights in the society facing violence, rape and poverty.

The Magic Mixture for Happiness

November 24, 2020 /0 Comments/in , , /by

In an ironic style, the playwright makes a carnival of diverse characters who all suffer from the lack of happiness. Every characters appears with its own specific monologue/experience, yet the same character re-emerges again later adding new layers to its tragedy and responding to the issues of the other characters. Almost in a bleak way, every character tries to live with its own lifelessness. In a society where everything seems to be fake, the human existence is void of humanness and of any hope in the future. Hope becomes a sarcastic bleak song delivered during the play. The magical mixture for happiness seems to be the mixture of those characters, who can only be happy by forcing it or faking it. It is a play that highlights the tragic situation of most of young Egyptians who cannot find a future to aspire to, nor hope. The depression of a potential driving force in Egypt, puts an end to the state-diffused illusion that everything here is perfect!

In the Name of the Father

November 24, 2020 /0 Comments/in , , , /by

An Egyptian billionaire seems to be ruling the world. He is the absolute Patriarch. His empire extends to his five children who control all the aspects of economic corruption on a global scale. From human trafficking/slavery, to prostitution, human organs’ trade, monuments’s trafficking, weapon trade, drugs, to the biological manufacturing of viruses and the pharmaceutical trade it entails, to the business of war, famine and investing in weapons of mass destruction, the Patriarch and his family have dehumanised everything. Following the death of his abandoned son (from a second wife), the father decides to repent by offering to the dead son his share in his fortune. All the five children rebel against the father. Led by the eldest, Hazem, the brothers and sisters gather to plan for the assassination of their father. The aunt (sister of the father) -who is blind- is the only one who dares to confront the father with his truth. The wife and mother of the dead son fight over whether he should be butties according to the Christian or Muslim traditions. The mother (ex-wife of the father) is christian, while the father is muslim. The wife of the dead son is also christian. A debate over which religion he should follow in death takes place. The mother insists that he is buried in the islamic cemeteries of his father’s family, to guarantee his inheritance as a muslim son. Meanwhile the five brothers and sisters play a deadly game that ends up by killing someone.