Futures: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab Theater

Futures is 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, Wael Kadour, Arzé Khodr, Rim Mejdi, Nasr Sami, and Leila Toubel—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 Kassab Hassan along with short introductions to the plays by US-based playwrights Lucas Baisch, Jess Barbagallo, Jordan Baum, Agnes Borinsky, Nazareth Hassan, and Haruna Lee.

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.

Braveheart by Wael Kadour (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?

Ruby by Leila Toubel (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.

Uprooting; Or, the Cat and Dog Pizza Chapters by Nasr Sami (Tunisia). Translated by Jonas Elbousty, 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.

Eternity by Rim Mejdi (Morocco). Translated by Caline Nasrallah, with an introduction by Jordan Baum.
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.

Left Out Gone Bad by Yasser Abu Shaqra (Palestine/Syria), 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.