Futures: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab Theater - by Yasser Abu Saqra & Agnes Borinsky & Paul Spera (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An anthology of six new plays written in Arabic, published here in English translation. Including five plays selected from over 500 submissions to Masrah Ensemble's 2021 Open Call and one by Masrah Ensemble's former playwright-in-residence, these six texts--by Yasser Abu Shaqra, Arzé Khodr, Rim Mejdi, Wael Qaddur, Nasr Sami, and Leila Tubal--represent a diverse array of voices and styles, and push at the limits of theatrical form and public discourse. The volume features an introduction by theater writer/director/academic Hanan Qassab Hassan along with short introductions to the plays by US-based playwrights Lucas Baisch, Jess Barbagallo, Agnes Borinsky, Nazareth Hassan, Kristen Kosmas, and Haruna Lee.

Ruby by Leila Tubal (Tunisia)

Translated by Hisham Ben Khamsa, with an introduction by Haruna Lee

A rhythmic monologue, lyrical and dark, in which a woman unpacks a life of misogyny and violence as she prepares to meet her daughter for the first time.

Braveheart by Wael Qaddur (Syria)

Translated by Clem Naylor, with an introduction by Lucas Baisch

A play about a group of friends writing a novel together, in which relationships collapse and get rebuilt through the act of writing. How do you move out of a state of war into a time of presumed stability?

Eternity by Rim Mejdi (Morocco)

Translated by Melanie Magidow and Caline Nasrallah, with an introduction by Kristen Kosmas

A young woman is stuck on a train, and just wants to get off. An allegorical knot of a play that moves between liveness and video, vernacular and formal Arabic, with interludes from Rimbaud's French.

Sometimes We Remember by Arzé Khodr (Lebanon)

Translated by Clem Naylor, with an introduction by Nazareth Hassan

A Fornesian diamond of a play that unfolds in a series of seemingly simple domestic and urban scenes, about the lure of dwelling in memories of war.

Dog and Cat Pizza Chapters by Nasr Sami (Tunisia)

Translated by Sam Kimball, with an introduction by Jess Barbagallo

A dizzying trip into a world of violence and distortion, by way of the Biblical Song of Songs. In which cats are nailed to walls, and two lovers seek to become one.

Unsettled by Yasser Abu Shaqra (Palestine/Syria)

Translated by Zeina Halabi, with an introduction by Agnes Borinsky

A Syrian family arrives as refugees in Europe, where life does not resemble what they imagined. Over the course of the play, each member of the family finds themselves backed deeper and deeper into a corner, and "safety" proves a devil's bargain.

About the Author

Yasser Abu Shaqra, a Palestinian-Syrian writer and theater-maker, was born in Damascus in 1985 and graduated from Damascus's Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts. Between 2010 and 2014, he organized a number of participatory theater projects in Damascus and the Syrian countryside. His play Before Dinner (2015) has been translated into English and Japanese, and was subsequently presented in Beirut, Baghdad, San Francisco, New York, Paris and Tokyo. A collection of his poetry was published in Denmark, and another play, Honey, Sun, and Gold (2021), was performed in Tunisia. He lives in France.

Actor and theater maker Paul Spera has collaborated with Masrah Ensemble since 2015, in Shatila and Beirut with the Family Ti-Jean project, and in Paris for the first French-language reading of Yasser Abu Shaqra's Before Dinner, translated by Krystel Khoury and co-produced by Maison d'Europe et d'Orient and Théâtre des Minuits. He is a member of Kultursciok Live Art Collective based in Paris and Naples, and he has performed in theater pieces and films in Europe, the US, and the Middle East.

Agnes Borinsky (she/they) is a writer, performer, and theater-maker based in Los Angeles. She is interested in the unintended transformations that become possible when the things we've planned fail. Her projects include many plays (The Trees, A Song of Songs, Of Government, Ding Dong It's the Ocean), experiments in participation (Working Group for a New Spirit, Weird Classrooms), and fiction (Sasha Masha). She has made work in collaboration with theater institutions - Playwrights Horizons, The Bushwick Starr, Clubbed Thumb - and outside of them, in basements, backyards, circus tents, community centers, and online. Her play, Brief Chronicle, Books 6-8, was published by 3 Hole Press, and Of Government is included in Clubbed Thumb's 2021 anthology.