Staged Performances & Readings
Chambers of the Heart | 2023 & 2024 | Shubbak Festival and Liverpool Arab Arts Festival
Three women confront love, desire and memory in stories spanning East and West in the first staged performance of Chambers of the Heart.
Newly divorced and adjusting to living alone in lockdown, 30-something Yasmine turns to online dating but there is something oddly familiar about who she meets.
Reem is a Syrian refugee in her early 40s fleeing her country but unable to let go of the memory of an unrequited love.
Mother is in her early 70s and reluctant to be on stage as she is interrogated by her son who is trying to unlock the past.
Written by Hassan Abdulrazzak, directed by Sepy Baghaei and performed by Laila Alj,
This work debuted as a staged performance at Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (Unity Theatre) on 19 July 2024.
A reading of the play was part of the Shubbak Festival (Theatro Technis) on 9 July 2023.
Three women confront love, desire and memory in stories spanning East and West in the first staged performance of Chambers of the Heart.
Newly divorced and adjusting to living alone in lockdown, 30-something Yasmine turns to online dating but there is something oddly familiar about who she meets.
Reem is a Syrian refugee in her early 40s fleeing her country but unable to let go of the memory of an unrequited love.
Mother is in her early 70s and reluctant to be on stage as she is interrogated by her son who is trying to unlock the past.
Written by Hassan Abdulrazzak, directed by Sepy Baghaei and performed by Laila Alj,
This work debuted as a staged performance at Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (Unity Theatre) on 19 July 2024.
A reading of the play was part of the Shubbak Festival (Theatro Technis) on 9 July 2023.
GOD’S D*CK | 2016 & 2021 | Kiln Theatre (2016) and Arcola theatre (2021)
Look at you, a big fella hunched over a little mouse. Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?
Ken is a stem cell biologist and, if he doesn’t get results, he will lose his job, his home and his chance at love. And what’s worse, the lab mice have started giving him dating advice.
This Darwinian comedy about competition puts the cut-throat world of scientific research under the microscope.
The Arcola staged performance was directed by Daniel Goldman; produced by Turtle Key Arts
The Kiln reading was on 5th April 2016, 7pm; it was directed by Harry Mackrill.
Look at you, a big fella hunched over a little mouse. Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?
Ken is a stem cell biologist and, if he doesn’t get results, he will lose his job, his home and his chance at love. And what’s worse, the lab mice have started giving him dating advice.
This Darwinian comedy about competition puts the cut-throat world of scientific research under the microscope.
The Arcola staged performance was directed by Daniel Goldman; produced by Turtle Key Arts
The Kiln reading was on 5th April 2016, 7pm; it was directed by Harry Mackrill.
Retreat | 2020 | Sundance Institute Theatre Lab (online)
by Hassan Abdulrazzak
directed by Kate Whoriskey
Samir, a Muslim Arab and a failed inventor, is contemplating suicide. His Korean-American friend Sophie is egging him on to kill himself. But Ivan, a Cuban-American, is not so sure. Ivan is writing a musical about suicide and thinks there is value in Samir staying alive, at the very least as a source for inspiration. Over the course of the evening, Sophie and Ivan will help Samir to decide whether he should stay alive or end his life. And if he chooses the latter, they will help him with the execution. Retreat is a black comedy that asks: considering the prevailing logic of neoliberal capitalism, is it not right to allow those who fail the dignity of suicide?
by Hassan Abdulrazzak
directed by Kate Whoriskey
Samir, a Muslim Arab and a failed inventor, is contemplating suicide. His Korean-American friend Sophie is egging him on to kill himself. But Ivan, a Cuban-American, is not so sure. Ivan is writing a musical about suicide and thinks there is value in Samir staying alive, at the very least as a source for inspiration. Over the course of the evening, Sophie and Ivan will help Samir to decide whether he should stay alive or end his life. And if he chooses the latter, they will help him with the execution. Retreat is a black comedy that asks: considering the prevailing logic of neoliberal capitalism, is it not right to allow those who fail the dignity of suicide?
Maroon | 2017 | Mosaic Rooms
Maroon centres around a story about Scheherazade, a Lebanese woman, has been engaged for two years to Peter, her English boyfriend. Peter has been reluctant to take the next step and marry her. Now she is facing deportation after her visa has ran out. She doesn’t want to go back to Lebanon because of something deeply troubling that her politician father, Waled has done in the past. The couple are then visited by a mysterious kitchen salesman who turns their world upside down. This is a thriller that looks at the relationship between Lebanon, Israel and Palestine and asks the question whether the horrors of war can ever be truly comprehended by those who do not experience them.
The reading was on 13/6/2017, 7pm
Directed by Chris White
Cast: Sirine Saba, Jaz Deol, Robin Soans, Sevan Greene
Image: World Press Photo of the Year 2006, © Spencer Platt, USA, Getty Images, Young Lebanese drive through devastated neighborhood of South Beirut.
Maroon centres around a story about Scheherazade, a Lebanese woman, has been engaged for two years to Peter, her English boyfriend. Peter has been reluctant to take the next step and marry her. Now she is facing deportation after her visa has ran out. She doesn’t want to go back to Lebanon because of something deeply troubling that her politician father, Waled has done in the past. The couple are then visited by a mysterious kitchen salesman who turns their world upside down. This is a thriller that looks at the relationship between Lebanon, Israel and Palestine and asks the question whether the horrors of war can ever be truly comprehended by those who do not experience them.
The reading was on 13/6/2017, 7pm
Directed by Chris White
Cast: Sirine Saba, Jaz Deol, Robin Soans, Sevan Greene
Image: World Press Photo of the Year 2006, © Spencer Platt, USA, Getty Images, Young Lebanese drive through devastated neighborhood of South Beirut.
