CAIRO: “I will paint wings on my back. Colorful wings and fly into a painting of Odilon Redon, says Yara Goubran as she enters onto the Howard Theater’s stage. The first play written by Shems Friedlander was in fact designed with this young actress in mind, who managed to take 22 minutes of dialogue and transform it into an exciting, emotional experience.
The idea of the play, entitled “Dream Water Does Not Quench Thirst is to focus on a simple human crisis: waiting for a phone call from a beloved. As trivial as this predicament may seem, which the majority of us have endured at one point or another, can attest to the degree of pain and stress that comes with it.
Goubran was delighted to take part in this monodrama. “The script, the first time he (Friedlander) read it to me, I was listening to it and it was so believable . It’s not just about waiting for the phone call, it’s about a lot of other things, she says.
Within this framework, Friedlander’s script is packed with references from many great poets, writers and artists, including Jalaleddin Rumi and William Shakespeare. He also includes his own philosophies and explores the human mind, exposing insecurities, self-pity, self-convincing, yearning and hope.
“She goes into temporary neuroses if you like, and goes through this dialogue in relationship with God, with the telephone, with an absent man, with herself … All in her own mind, says Friedlander.
Friedlander believes that the men in the audience were able to relate to the dialogue to the same extent as the women attending. Although he wrote the script from a woman’s perspective, according to Friedlander, it doesn’t matter, as both males and females have been placed in such a situation, and so everyone can sympathize with the character.
“I think it is phenomenal. The words and the directing were extraordinary. I am very touched and I’d love to see more of this, says Lecturer in the Department of Management at the American University in Cairo, Maged Abaza.
Another member of the audience, Nahla Samah, chief editor of Campus magazine, says “A huge part of it I thought was quite true, but as real as that aspect was I also felt that was over dramatized a bit. For the most part, the audience was generally very impressed, not only with the reality portrayed in the play, but also that “It was very funny, had lots of very vivid imaging and lots of good one liners, says Motaz Atallah, another audience member.
By the end of the play, the girl finds her inner strength and decides to let go of the man in question and his phone call. “I stopped crying, he can call now, she says before she gets up with dignity and leaves the bench she had been sitting on throughout the play.
The voice over (which is Goubran’s own voice) then explains that a girl with painted wings has flown into a painting by Odilon Redon, a painting of a Buddha in the woods. The voice goes on to explain that the girl and the Buddha are meditating in the forest together.
The painting is mentioned in the very first sentence in the play, yet we do not understand its true meaning until this point, which is that of freedom. From the outset she aches for her freedom, to be released from the imprisonment this man has put her in as she painfully waits for that call that will temporary release her.
At the end of the play, the girl flies into the painting, leaving the trap she had fallen into. Although the play ends without revealing whether the man called or not, it is a moot point. “It doesn’t matter if he called or not. It became unimportant … She gained her inner power and maybe if he calls she won’t even answer, says Friedlander.
The final scene in the play is the girl sitting on the same bench, this time wearing a mask. The lights start to dim as she takes off the mask to reveal another one underneath.
The ending of the play could be interpreted differently by each person, says assistant director Lulie El-Ashry. Her own opinion is that the entire monodrama is the girl getting everything out and the end is like a realization. “She asked God for help, but the help she wanted came in a very different way, she realized that stepping away from it will make her ok, she said.
Shems Friedlander is an award-winning graphic designer, photographer, painter, author of nine books, documentary film maker, lecturer at the American University in Cairo and now a playwright. “Dream Water Does Not Quench Thirst will be shot as a short film in the near future.
