What does home mean to you? Is it a time or a place? A certain smell, perhaps, or even a face?
These are particularly pertinent questions for the predominantly expatriate population of the UAE, and they are explored by a new grass-roots stage production that has its premiere at Dubai performance hub The Fridge on Saturday, May 21.
Invisible Cities: Words and Rhythms About a Place Called Home mixes drama, poetry, film, sound effects and even live beatboxing to create a multidisciplinary meditation.
It is the latest production from UAE comedy hub Dubomedy – but this time they’re not playing it just for laughs.
Comprising seven monologues delivered by four women – or “womonologues”, as this show calls them – mixing sentiment and humour, fiction and biography, the show ponders the multitude of emotions conjured up by the concept of “home”.
The project was inspired by several trips director Mina Liccione made to Jordan over the past three years with her husband, celebrated Emirati comedian Ali AL Sayed, to visit Syrian refugee camps.
“Everyone we spoke to was talking about the same thing,” says New York-born Liccione. “Home – the place they were coming from, the place they were going, the new lives they were building.
“It was very hard to hear all these stories – a lot of these kids didn’t survive.”
This year, Liccione began gathering like-minded creators and performers to explore these themes in one-person performances, compiled to craft a hybrid project of contrasting disciplines.
One of those she called on was Palestinian actress and poet Dana Dajani who, at the age of 27, has lived in 25 houses and visited more than 30 countries.
“I feel most at home in airports,” she says, sharing a deep sense of lacking roots.
She performs two monologues, in one of which she reads a letter she sent to her family, imploring them not to sell her grandfather’s house in Jordan, the last remaining link to her past. She failed to stop them.
“Even today it gives me goose bumps to talk about,” she says. “It was one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life.”
Liccione’s own contributions to the show include a bathroom-based monologue inspired by her grandmother, who found emotional comfort in the privacy of the toilet.
We sat in on a rehearsal at Dubomedy’s offices in JLT, 10 days before the premiere. It was the first time the cast had performed together, but the mood was that of a communal workshop.
Among piles of colourful beanbags and rows of comedy DVDs and books, the order of the monologues and section segues are thrashed out – they decide a US$5 (Dh18) note given to a busker will act as the bridge to a new scene.
Also present is Beatbox Ray, who will offer live musical accompaniment, while ambient sound and music was composed by soundscape designer Ahmad Molham Makki.
This multimedia content will play a key role in spoken-word artist Farah Chamma's chapter. Titled Embryo, her work mixes poetry with image and sound to take the audience on a journey back to the safety of the womb. She talks about the foetal position as a refuge for those at rest or in danger.
“This is the feeling I relate most to home,” says the 21-year-old Palestinian, who admits that she is still working on her piece.
Victoria Armador’s piece is in a more complete state. After 30 years living and working in foreign lands, the American writer and actor feels most at home behind the wheels of a car.
“My idea of home is driving along a road, seeing a side road and thinking: ‘I think I’ll go this way’ – what could be better?” says the 60-year-old, who is a professor at the American University of Sharjah.
“The road trip is a life metaphor – I want to make sure, if the party is boring, I can just get in the car and go.”
Invisible Cities: Words and Rhythms About a Place Called Home is at The Fridge, Alserkal Avenue on Saturday, May 21 at 3.30pm and 7.30pm. Tickets cost Dh80. Email LOL@Dubomedy.com for tickets and more information
rgarratt@thenational.ae
