NEW YORK: Six Syrian actors battled a fraught US visa process to tread the boards in New York this week, seeking to impress on American theater goers the human cost of a war raging halfway round the world.
Nothing could be further from the typical summer entertainment in this city of flamboyant wealth and consumption, sizzling under a July heatwave and thousands of miles from the horrors unfolding in Syria.
Yet the US premiere of “While I Was Waiting” won a standing ovation from New Yorkers moved Wednesday by the realization that those trapped by the war are ordinary people just like them.
“Anyone in New York is going to understand the characters immediately,” said Sam Sacks, a 37-year-old writer who was at the opening night at the annual Lincoln Center Festival.
“They seem like people who could be our neighbors here.”
The play tells the story of Taim, a young filmmaker left in a coma after being beaten at a Damascus checkpoint, and how his mother, sister, girlfriend and other friends react to his plight.
As the characters grapple with past hurts and brutal realities, the drama spotlights how their middle-class lives have been upended by the now six-year conflict that has killed more than 320,000 people.
The Arabic-language play, with English subtitles, seeks to dive behind grisly media headlines about gas attacks, beheadings, and a repressive regime to show a more human perspective.
A love of music, hiding a joint from a visiting mother and liberated young women may surprise some who harbor stereotypes about life in a Muslim-majority Arab country.
“It just confirmed that we’re all humans and we’re in this boat together. It doesn’t seem to have a resolution, I hope it will soon,” said Henrietta Gwaltney, a New York social worker.
The four-night production brings six actors as well as additional Syrian crew members to New York. Ultimately, only one technical member of the group was denied a US visa.
Written by playwright Mohammad Al-Attar, the play premiered in Brussels last year and has already toured Europe and Japan.
“I’m really amazed by the American people,” said Mohammad, who currently lives in Egypt. “I think they are nicer than I imagined.”
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