The first book that I have chosen for my group, Arabic Literature II, is the book Short Arabic Plays. It has been immensely interesting so far, and I cannot wait to finish it! So far, I have read three plays: “Where the Power Lies,” “The Traveler,” and “The Alley.”
“Where the Power Lies” is a play that exposes the corruption and laziness of government officials in the Middle East. Its main characters are civil servants that “work” in little offices that are supposed to handle applications (though it is not clear what exactly the applications are for). “Work” is in parenthesis because all they really do is chat with each other and make plans on how to get out of doing their work. Their corruption is shown in that they treat every applicant that comes into their office differently, based on the applicant’s wealth, power, and even appearance. There is specifically a poor applicant whom they continually refuse to help, until he pretends to have “connections.”
“The Traveler” is the most interesting play to me so far. There is only one actor in the play, who is acting on a stage full of scattered luggage. The play is performed with a thorough soundtrack, including an announcer who keeps telling passengers to board different flights. The actor cannot decide which flight to board. There is one leading home, one leading to the future, and others. The announcer also keeps telling any of the passengers who want to find “love” to find the nearest person and investigate for “potential.” It is a rather amusing play, though sad in the end, because the actor is left confused and unable to decide where he wants to go with his life.
Finally, “The Alley” is another play with only one main actress. It is a play in which the actress reveals her childhood memories about life in Palestine before and after Israel was created. The name comes from an alley that she frequently visited near her house.
I will keep everyone posted on the rest of the plays!
These sound like they might be great reading for the rest of the class.
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