Leslie Black PhotographyTHE WRITERS WHO CONTRIBUTED MATERIAL TO THIS PROJECT ARE: Alaedeen Chouiref, Nazeeha Saeed, Abdelrahim Alwaj, Zeinab Magdy, Somar Dhagestani, Shima Hamed, Leila Soliman, Wael Quadour, Nawja Sabra, Arze Khodr and many others who contributed stories, facebook posts, slogans, or told us their experience.
In partnership with the National Theatre of Scotland
24 Authors 24 Locations 24 Hours in one 50 minute play. Òran Mór and National Theatre of Scotland have commissioned short scenes from young playwrights across the Arab world. Each scene is a glimpse into a place and a moment in time. The whole show will be a portrait in glimpses of a generation and a moment of restlessness and change. The show will be performed by two young Egyptian actors and soundtracked with the best club music from Beirut, Tunis and Cairo.
A fine end to a worthwhile project of which all concerned with should be rightly proud.
Where some of the earlier plays in the series have been necessarily bleak, this one wins you over with its life-force.
The lessons range from the hilarious (“Tunisians are smug”) to the heart-stopping and chilling; some of the young demonstrators, marching and chanting one minute, are suddenly knocking on heaven’s door. Yet at the end, Sara draws a door in the wall, and she and Seif miraculously pass through it, into a new future. It’s a brilliant, exhilarating and moving image of a generation making its own destiny; and realising, too, that when it comes to the impossible, it just takes a little longer.
The entire production was simple, powerful and effective, reminding us that any change is not an end in itself but part of a process.
A Play, a Pie and a Pint, Glasgow from Monday May 21, 2012, until Saturday May 26, 2012. More info: http://playpiepint.com
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from Tuesday May 29, 2012, until Saturday June 2, 2012. More info: www.traverse.co.uk
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