Nove partes do desejo (jogo)
Content
Título
O título se origina de uma declaração de Ali de que "Deus criou um desejo sexual em 10 partes; então ele deu nove partes às mulheres e uma aos homens". Esta afirmação é de um hadith nas 100 máximas do imã Ali. Lauren Sandler, do New York Times, escreveu que "a ênfase da peça no sexo é inerente ao seu título". Geraldine Brooks usou essa afirmação como um título de seu livro de 1995, Nove Parts of Desire. O único aspecto que o livro de Brooks e a peça compartilham é o título. Raffo agradeceu a Brooks pela inspiração no programa da peça.
Criação e concepção
Durante uma viagem de agosto de 1993 a Bagdá para ver a família, Heather Raffo visitou o Saddam Art Center. De acordo com Raffo, uma pintura intitulada "Savagery", representando uma mulher nua segurando uma árvore, deu a ela a inspiração para fazer essa peça. Esta pintura foi feita por Layla al-Atar. Raffo estava curioso sobre a vida de al-Ata, e na peça, ela colocou o personagem Al-Ate com destaque.
Raffo, por dez anos, entrevistou mulheres iraquianas de várias origens sociais, e usou essas informações para escrever a peça. Algumas mulheres eram estranhas para ela e algumas eram parentes. De acordo com Raffo, "[ser um iraquiano] me colocou na porta", mas que as mulheres estavam mais dispostas a confiar nela porque ela também era americana.
Em 1998, Raffo declarou que usaria esse conceito como seu mestre em tese de belas artes. Como parte da tese, ela fez uma apresentação de 20 minutos no Old Globe Theatre em San Diego, Califórnia. A peça final foi criada em 2003.
Personagens
Os personagens são compósitos das mulheres iraquianas que Raffo haviam entrevistado. Se uma atriz retrata todos os personagens, ela pode usar uma abaya de maneira diferente cada vez que retrata um personagem distinto. Não houve mudanças de fantasia no desempenho original de Raffo e, em vez disso, houve apenas uma diferença na maneira como o abaya é usado. Na peça, Raffo usou sotaques diferentes para retratar diferenças regionais e de classe; Na época, ela realizou a peça que não conhecia em árabe. O próprio Abaya também é usado como um suporte. As mulheres estão, em ordem: Mulaya, Layal, Amal, Huda, o médico, a garota, umm Ghada, a americana e Nanna.
Mulaya - The first character in the play. Mulaya is a woman who responds and lead calls to women at funerals. The play does not state the identity of the person who hired Mulaya. Magda Romanska of Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics wrote that Mulaya's mourning is directed at all of Iraq rather than a specific person, and that "In a way, she is more symbolic figuration than character". "Mulaya" is the traditional name of a woman hired at funerals. Joel Hirschhorn of Variety describes her as "a poignant, pitiable figure."Layal (the name means "all the nights" ) - She is the play's main speaker. An artist from Baghdad, Layal is the curator of the Saddam Art Center. Layal has a privileged position and she is the only artist in Iraq allowed to make nude paintings. She had been forced into having sexual relations with Saddam's sons. She had watched the execution of one of her friends, who died after being fed to dogs. She survives during the rule of Saddam because she painted portraits of Saddam Hussein. The end of the play reveals that Layal has been killed in a bombing by American missile. She is based on an Iraqi artist, Layla Attar, who died in 1993 after her house was bombed by American missile. When Raffo played Layal, in the words of Maria Beach of the Theatre Journal, she "[moved] with a confident grace that is betrayed by nervous giggles" and "[stroked] her throat sensually". The abaya is draped on the character's shoulders.Romanska wrote that Layal "struggles to maintain a coherent self-image" because she feels trapped by the conflicting perceptions of herself being a victim, collaborator, and critic of Saddam's government, and that Layal operates on a survival mode because she is so deeply traumatized by what she has experienced. Billington wrote that even though Layal is "apparently compromised by her complicity with Saddam's regime" she "defends herself vigorously and, through her painting, brings to life a wide range of oppressed Iraqi women". John Lahr of The New Yorker wrote that "Of the many atrocities that the women report, the most compelling is the spiritual mutation of Layal, whose collaboration with Saddam’s regime leaves her internally empty and morally bankrupt. She is beyond shame or pity." Hirschhorn argues that Layal is the "most fascinating personality" of the play. Romanska also wrote that Layal both subtly criticizes Saddam's government and sympathizes with it at the same time.Amal - A Bedouin woman who talks about her romantic issues, Amal, who wears an abaya, is fat, and the production calls for the costume to give the appearance of a fat woman. Beach described Amal as "sweetly sensitive". In her story, she moves to London with her husband and two children. She discovers that her husband is having sexual intercourse with her best friend. Nine Parts of Desire does not state whether she divorced her husband; Amal moves back to Iraq after her discovery, leaving her husband. She later moves to Israel and becomes the second wife of one of her father's friends, an Arab tribesman. Amal takes care of the eight children of the first wife because that wife leaves for periods of several months. Amal leaves the Israeli Arab when he does not take the family to Canada like he promises. In Baghdad, Amal is rejected by a friend of her ex-husband after the two have a year-long correspondence over the telephone. She returns to her first husband who is still in London. Lauren Sandler of The New York Times wrote that Amal "confesses heartbreak and desire in a monologue that sounds more HBO than how some audiences might perceive women in the Middle East." The woman who Amal was based on saw a production of the play in 2003.Huda (or Hooda) - Huda, 70 years old, is a resident of London who believes that the United States should have removed Saddam Hussein from power during the 1991 Gulf War. Hooda drinks and smokes. A leftist and an academic, Huda left Iraq in 1963. Before she left Iraq, she was a member of a political party opposed to the Ba'th Party, and therefore becoming imprisoned for a period. After leaving Iraq, she was involved in many political causes. Romanska wrote that Huda "left Iraq a long time ago, and by now should have adjusted to her new life, but Huda lives in her past, reliving traumatic memories from the old country." She has ambivalent feelings about the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Even though she is opposed to U.S. imperialism, she has a strong hatred of Saddam Hussein. Romanska wrote that "Next to Layal, Huda is perhaps the most complex of the nine characters."The Doctor - A woman, educated in the United Kingdom, she had returned to Iraq in order to help her country. She had treated various injuries related to war. The doctor's hospital is in a poor condition and she encounters negative effects of uranium weapons, including newborn babies with mutations. Her name is not stated and she is referred to as "The Doctor".The Girl - A 9-year-old girl, this character has no name. Her mother withdrew her from school after some American soldiers had visited the school. She actively follows American popular culture, such as listening to 'N Sync, through the television and satellite, and she believes American soldiers appear like Justin Timberlake. Romanska states that she describes violent events and possibilities "matter-of-factly, so used to the twisted reality around her that she appears unaware of its horror." Romanska states that it is common for survivors of traumatic events to feel a sense of numbness. The girl describes the death of her grandparents; they were unwilling to answer the door and did not speak English, and a tank killed them afterwards. The girl can distinguish types of weapons from hearing them fired. Romanska stated, "She is proud of this skill and brags about it with a blasé attitude, on the same emotional scale with which she chats about Justin Timberlake and Oprah". Beach stated that when Raffo played the girl, she "[danced] with awkward exuberance to music videos on satellite television." The character wears the abaya twisted into a braid.Umm Ghada - She describes the United States-perpetrated February 13, 1991 Amiriyah shelter bombing, in which she lost her family. She had since become a caretaker of the site, serving as its guide, while living a yellow trailer outside of the site and calling herself "Umm Ghada" or "mother of Ghada" after her deceased daughter. The name "Ghada" also means "tomorrow" and the character states "so I am Umm Ghada, Mother of Tomorrow. My full name is dead with them." Umm Ghada makes it her singular life mission to tell the world what had happened, and Romanska states that this reaction is typical of trauma survivors; Romanska added that "Her life never returns to normal, as she is unable to function outside of the shelter", and that she had lost her personal identity as a result of the bombing. Umm Ghada is based on a real person. Twair argues she is "[p]erhaps the most tragic" character.The American - Un-named, she is an Iraqi American exile in Manhattan, has family in Iraq, and watches the news of the war there. Her monologues are scattered throughout the play. She is anxious for news about her family. She recites the names of Iraqi relatives while holding a rosary and watching CNN coverage of bombing in Baghdad. She engages in trivial pursuits in order to stay sane but cannot enjoy them. Romanska wrote "Watching the bombs come down on her family neighborhood, the American is stunned by her own sense of alienation: She has grown to identify herself as an American, and now, she is asked to view herself as the other, the enemy." Pat McDonnell Twair of The Middle East wrote that the character "may even be Raffo herself". Romanska refers to her as the "alter ego" of Raffo.Nanna - An elderly street peddler who had lived through Iraq's political turmoil, she sells objects salvaged from destroyed structures to U.S. Marines. The final item she attempts to sell is Savagery, a painting by Layal. The play indicates in this way that Layal is now dead. Marilyn Stasio of Variety describes her as a "Mother Courage-like figure".Produção
A peça foi inaugurada em agosto de 2003 no The Traverse Theatre, em Edimburgo, na Escócia. Em setembro daquele ano, estreou no West End no Bush Theatre. De outubro de 2004 a maio de 2005, estreou fora da Broadway no Teatro de Manhattan Ensemble.
Raffo e Amir Elsaffar, um músico iraquiano Maqam, criaram uma versão de concerto. Esta versão tocada no Kennedy Center.
Recepção
Magda Romanska de Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics escreveu que havia um "entusiasmo geral" para a peça quando foi lançado pela primeira vez. Ela afirmou que na época do comunicado: "Havia curiosidade sobre o Iraque e os iraquianos nos EUA, ao mesmo tempo em que a invasão foi apresentada ao povo americano como se fosse" libertar "o Iraque, e particularmente as mulheres iraquianas oprimidas . " A escrita da peça ocorreu antes da invasão de 2003 do Iraque, mas o lançamento aconteceu após a invasão.
Em 2003, o Independent nomeou essa peça como uma das cinco melhores peças. Em relação à apresentação de 2003 no The Traverse Theatre, Billington escreveu que "embora Raffo seja uma bela atriz, suas transições de um personagem para outro nem sempre são definidas fortemente. Mas os negros estéticos pálidos ao lado da importância de seu assunto". Twair escreveu que a apresentação em Londres na temporada de setembro de 2003 foi classificada entre as cinco melhores jogadas em Londres.
Bernardo fez a apresentação em 9 de outubro de 2004 e "A-". Em relação a uma apresentação de 2004 na cidade de Nova York, Stasio escreveu "Embora uma produção completa possa ter dado a esse material incendiário um impacto mais devastador, é impossível ouvir as vozes dessas mulheres sem querer se alinhar para assinar o livro de testemunhas . " Stasio estava se referindo a uma cena em que Umm Ghada pede à platéia que assine seu livro de testemunhas.
Damaso Reyes, do New York Amsterdam News, escreveu sobre a performance de Nova York de 2004 que "" Nove Parts "seria uma experiência incrível se contivesse um elenco completo, mas o desempenho solo de Raffo o torna ainda mais espetacular. Ela muda sem problemas de um de um Caráter para outro e depois volte para costurar uma narrativa que tenta dar ao público uma compreensão muito mais profunda do mundo das mulheres do Iraque do que qualquer coisa que vimos antes ".
Hirschhorn argumentou que a diferenciação dos personagens "não é tão clara quanto poderia ser, e o retrato implacável de Raffo pode ficar exaustivo. Alguma modulação e sutileza dariam à sala do público para responder mais plenamente".
Geraldine Brooks, autora do livro nove partes do desejo, escreveu que "é ressonante. Ele descenta camada e camada da vida dos personagens, nunca buscando suposições fáceis ou simples sobre quem ou o que é o culpado por suas aguardentes. "