In Their Own Words
"The show opened and the laughs drowned out the noise of the bombs. Occasionally the doors would rattle from the air pressure of the explosions, but it was rare. Thankfully the play was loud and the laughter even louder... and honestly I think we laughed even harder then we should have actors and audience because we didn't want to hear anything else."
Sharif Abdunnur, Director - www.theatreversusoppression.com, downloaded 21st August 2006
"Masrah means more than theatre. It means a place where you can roam freely, where you can play. That's the actual literal translation for the word. That's what we've been kind of trying to do."
Sharif Abdunnur, Director - In Place of War Seminar
"We have done plays that have bothered nearly every single person in the country, 'cause we tend to do topics that are important that means that no one wants to hear about them."
Sharif Abdunnur, Director - In Place of War Seminar
"...the stage itself seated about twelve families. As Arabs we don't have three people in our families. The smallest family starts at six. You have all these families living on the stage and we had a very unique set up where we would walk in at eight o'clock in the morning and we would help the families pack the mattresses away and then use the stage fro rehearsal and at the end of the night put the mattresses back. Some nights, when we had workshops or rehearsals really late, they would use half the stage for sleeping and we would rehearse very quietly next to them. This was the situation for about thirty-three days and it became really hard at times."
Sharif Abdunnur, Director - In Place of War Seminar
"We don't use names in our plays. All my plays are always numbered; none of the characters are named, because in our community, if you give me your first name I know what religion you're from. If you give me your full name, not only do I know what religion: what sect, what neighbourhood, what area, what political premise; everything you've got about you, down to about these four generations. Everybody knows this, from the young kids to the older generations, so when you speak everybody kind of knows."
Sharif Abdunnur, Director - In Place of War Seminar
"When the ex-Prime Minister was assassinated we had a series of car bombs in one Christian neighbourhood so I wrote two very short, easy comedies: just kind of laugh out loud, no-brainers. And we opened in the middle of the neighbourhood that was being bombed every night, and we had two car bombs blow up during our shows. The whole point was to defy what was going on and go open. This is not something I came up with, it's something I grew up with."
Sharif Abdunnur, Director - In Place of War Seminar
"I found a better audience during war than I found in peacetime, which might be a little frustrating at times, financially, but if it's bombing I get more people in the house than if it's not, because all the nightclubs and the pubs close down so there's nowhere else to go but the theatre. Generally the war works really well with theatre. People need to sit down and laugh and people need to meet other people. It's the one time when you really need to see other humans, whether you like them or not, you need to see them: you need to feel you're not alone, because maybe one of the scariest things is to be left alone during the bombing, during the war."
Sharif Abdunnur, Director - In Place of War Seminar
