Archives: Plays

Title: The Talented Ones

Author: El Gundi, Yussef

Year: 2018

Geography: Africa > Northern Africa > Egypt

Synopsis: Yussef El Gundi’s play is a dark comedy the stress of the American Dream on an
Egyptian couple, Cindy and Omar, among the failed dreams and bad decisions, Omar’s
white friend, Patrick manipulates Omar into one mistake with lethal consequences. The
themes with immigration and expectations of newcomers to achieve the dream as fast as
humanly possible and the strain the whole process it takes on a marriage. The historical
and political context around this play is found through its timing of the aftermath of the
Arab Spring, which occurred in early to mid 2010s.

Publication: El Gundi, Yussef, The Talented Ones. 2018. Broadway Play Publishing
Incorporated
Title: 9 parts of Desire

Author: Raffo, Heather

Year: 2006 (Official)

Geography: Asia > Western Asia > Iraq

Synopsis: Heather Raffo’s one woman show follows 9 different Iraqi Women as they deliver their
own monologues about their experiences during Saddam Husseins reign as President of
Iraq. The thematic significance of migration is found in the play when 4/5 of the
characters discuss their experience immigrating from Iraq to the United States/The
United Kingdom, and their experience leaving during the gulf war.

Publication: Raffo, Heather, 9 Parts of Desire. 2006. Northwestern University Press.
Title: Desert of Like

Author: Haydar, Rama

Year: 2016

Geography: Asia > Western Asia > Syria

Synopsis: Set inside a refugee camp outside the capital of Syria, Damascus, in this tragicomedy
follows two men as they explore different ways to leave the camp while there is siege
going on. The two men are in the refugee camp in the first place is to escape Syria, as
Syria was hit the hardest during the Arab Spring (one of the countries hit hardest by the
Arab spring and didn’t see relief until 2025).

Publication: Haydar, Rama, Desert of Light. 2016. Cornell Council of the Arts (CCA)
Title: Women in War

Author: Asadi Al, Jawad

Year: 2003/2017

Geography: Asia > Western Asia > Iraq

Synopsis: Women in War follows a group of refugee women as they discuss the pitfalls and
struggles of what it’s like to migrate while being Arab and a woman. All three refugee
women are detained in Germany’s detention camps. All three women represent their
countries of Iraq, Algeria and Palestine. The political and historical themes around
migration is found in its discussion of gender politics within the middle east and how the
effects of war are more than just physical but emotional as well; this referring to how
during the early 2000’s, all these countries were experiencing some form of internal war
or western imperialism.

Publication: Asadi Al, Jawad. Women in War. 2017. Dar Al-Farabi for Publishing and
Distribution
Title: Queens of Syria

Author: Various women

Year: 2014

Geography: Asia > Western Asia > Syria

Synopsis: In this retelling of Euripides’s “The Trojan Women”, Queens of Syria follow a group of
female Syrian refugees that retell their experiences of migration, displacement and the
Syrian civil war. The important historical context is that the Syrian refugee crisis began
in the early to mid 2010s and it left several families displaced and unable to go back to a
life they once knew.

Publication: Various women, Queens of Syria. 2014. Developing Artists, Refuge
Productions and Young Vic.
Title: One Thousand and One Titanics

Author: Mahmoud Hourani

Year: Between 2008 and 2016 [There is no clear information about this
online]

Geography: Asia > Western Asia > Palestine

Synopsis: This silent play (which is performed through puppets) which shows the reasons and ways
in which many Arab refugees that fled their home countries and risk everything for
Europe and the Western world. Western propaganda and western imperialism in the
Middle East had it effects fully felt, to the point millions upon millions of refugees flee to
find a better life in countries they were told they were going to have a better life in,
despite the many roadblocks ahead.

Publication: [Not enough clear information about this online]
Title: Plan D

Author: Khalil, Hannah

Year: 2010

Geography: Asia > Western Asia > Palestine

Synopsis: When Nakba strikes, a family must drop everything to flee danger. This play is another
example of the migration struggles that Palestinian families across the decades have
struggled to rebuild their lives from displacement, migration and immigration.

Publication: Khalil, Hannah, Plan D. 2010, Methuen Drama.
Title: Oh Sweet My Land

Author: Zuabi Nizar, Amir

Year: 2014

Geography: Asia > Western Asia > Palestine

Synopsis: After leaving Syria, a couple must face their new lives while trying to move on from the
war and being okay with the possibility of leaving Syria behind, less as a home and more
as a memory. Migration for many Syrian refugees had to come to terms with the idea of
leaving home, and having to do it with the focus of starting over for circumstances out of
their control.

Publication: Zuabi Nizar, Amir, Oh My Sweet Land. 2014, Methuen Drama.
Title: The Refugees

Author: Askari, Brent

Year: 2024

Geography: Asia > Southern Asia > Iran

Synopsis: The Sutton Family, a wealthy white American Family, living in the middle east have their
life flipped upside down, when they themselves become the refugees. This white family
must experience what those of a lower class and a racialized nationals experience when
they become refugees themselves. This subverts expectations as in modern times, we
have a very racialized view of what a refugee looks like, and we do not see them as white
Americans.

Publication: Askari, Brent, The Refugees. 2024, Professional, Organization Gulfshore
Playhouse
Title: Miss Consuelo

Author: Guillermo Reyes

Year: 2003

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: They call her “Miss Consuelo, la Novelista!” Consuelo Chavez is a middle-aged Mexican immigrant woman living in the United States and writing a romance novel. She hopes that the novel will be a hit and will bring her success in her new home: the highly competitive Los Angeles.

Publication: Alexander Street Press, 2003