Oh My Sweet Land

Called “extraordinary” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Oh My Sweet Land returns to Bay Area home and community kitchens after a sold-out pilot run in October 2017. The tour-de-force solo show, based on interviews with Syrian refugees in Jordan, takes an unflinching and personal look at the Syrian refugee crisis, and the brutal war that led up to it. In the play, a woman of mixed Syrian-German parentage recalls her encounter with Ashraf, a Syrian man in Paris, all the while preparing kibbeh, a Syrian delicacy. When he disappears, she goes on an arduous journey in search of him that leads to stirring conversations with some of the two-million Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. One part detective story, one part a woman’s reckoning with her heritage, Oh My Sweet Land offers an intimate and nuanced perspective on the conflict in Syria and highlights the resilience of the Syrian people. Oh My Sweet Land runs one hour followed by a 30-minute food sharing and community conversation. Instead of a traditional theater space, Oh My Sweet Land will be performed in kitchens around the Bay Area with performances followed by food sharing and community conversations. The performance includes the cooking of meat, onions, wheat, and spices.