unseen
PRODUCTION HISTORY
mosaic theater
March-April 2023. DIRECTOR: Johanna Gruenhut. SET: Emily Lotz. LIGHTS: Jesse Belsky. COSTUMES: Sarah Cubbage. SOUND: Matthew M. Nielson. PROJECTIONS: Mona Kasra. FIGHT AND INTIMACY DIRECTOR: Sierra Young. ARABIC CONSULTANT: Hala Baki.
CAST: Katie Klieger, Dina Soltan, Emily Townley.
oregon shakespeare festival
April-August 2022. DIRECTOR: Evren Odcikin. SET: Marianna Sanchez. LIGHTS: Solomon Weisband. COSTUMES: Dina Abd El-Aziz. SOUND: Avi Amon. PROJECTIONS: Kaitlyn Pietras. CAST: Nora El-Samahy, Helen Sadler, Caroline Shaffer. U/S: Gloria Imseih Petrelli, Erica Sullivan, and Kate Wisniewski. DRAMATURG: Sonia Fernandez. INTIMACY COORDINATOR: Charlie Baker. ARABIC CONSULTANT: Hala Baki.
synopsis
3 WOMEN. Conflict photographer Mia wakes up in the Istanbul apartment of her on-again, off-again girlfriend after being found unconscious at the scene of a massacre she was photographing. Mia can’t even remember being there, but she wired photos of the site hours before she was found. The two women resume their volatile push-pull when Mia’s well-meaning Californian mother arrives from the US, trying to help unravel what happened to her daughter.
EXCERPT
MIA
It’s your fault! You were supposed to teach me proper Arabic.
I told you, I don’t know it anymore.
DERYA, MIA
Not true.
DERYA
Prayers. Prayers and a few other things. That’s it. And none of those have crossed my lips in years.
MIA
Crossed your lips? See that is idiomatic. Right? So we can’t be that dumb.
DERYA
At least when Turks use idiomatic language it’s poetic. It’s beautiful!
MIA
Okay okay okay. Can’t you just, you know, prepare me some tea and food and be quiet for a while?
DERYA
You should be traditional Muslim! You would fit right in!
MIA
Fine.-- As a man of course.
DERYA
Of course.
MIA
Who wouldn’t want to be a man in this world? It’s all so much easier.
DERYA
Your views are so regressive sometimes! I think it’s possible to be the kind of woman one wants to be in this world.
MIA
Where? Here? Didn’t the prime minister ban women laughing? Am I getting that right?
DERYA
You got it right. But don’t start with me. I hate that paternalistic, Muslim-women-have-it-so-bad shit.
MIA
You say Muslim women have it bad! All the time!
DERYA
I’m allowed to! I grew up Muslim! It’s mine to criticize. We don’t need well-meaning white women telling us how oppressed we are!
oregon shakespeare festival
the gift theater
