Suitcase/Adrenaline

By Ahmad Meree

These two powerful plays by Ahmad Meree examine the effects of war and the refugee experience. Suitcase considers the lives of refugees and the spaces they inhabit. The play urges the audience to reassess the significance of their possessions, the relationships they value, and all of the things they have left behind. Adrenaline follows Jaber, a refugee getting ready to celebrate his first New Year's Eve in Canada after leaving his war-torn home in Syria. Using objects he has around the house, Jaber unpacks memories of war, and tries to understand the price he has had to pay for his safety in Canada.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scirocco Drama
• Release date: Jul 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990737718

Ahmad Meree

Ahmad Meree is an actor and playwright. He was born in Aleppo, Syria, and graduated from the Higher Institute of Theatre Arts in Cairo. He has performed in Syria, winning the Best Actor Award in the Central Theatre Festival in Syria (2008). In Egypt, he directed Ionesco's The Lesson and won Best Director Award for directing Chekhov's The Bear at Cairo's Festival of International Theatre (2013). Ahmad continued his journey as a refugee when he moved to Canada in 2016. He now lives in Kitchener, Ontario, where he works with MT Space as artistic associate, facilitator, and co-director of their Young Company. Ahmad has written three plays, Underground (2014), which won Best Original Script in a university competition, Adrenaline (2017) which he toured to the Ryga Festival in Summerland, BC and Summerworks Performance Festival in Toronto, and Suitcase (2019).

Book preview

Cover: Suitcase Adrenaline by Ahmad Meree, published under Scirocco Drama, by J. Gordon Shillingford, shows an early nineteenth century brown leather suitcase, with a keyhole.

Suitcase/Adrenaline

first published 2020 by Scirocco Drama

An imprint of J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing Inc.

© 2020 Ahmad Meree

Scirocco Drama Editor: Glenda MacFarlane

Cover design by Doowah Design

Author photo by Kristy Shute

Cover Photo (English): Barry John

Cover Photo (Arabic): Peter Riddihough

Printed and bound in Canada on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Manitoba Arts Council and

The Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program

.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, for any reason, by any means, without the permission of the publisher. This play is fully protected under the copyright laws of Canada and all other countries of the Copyright Union and is subject to royalty. Changes to the text are expressly forbidden without written consent of the author. Rights to produce, film, record in whole or in part, in any medium or in any language, by any group, amateur or professional, are retained by the author.

Production inquiries please contact:

[e-mail]

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Suitcase ; Adrenaline / Ahmad Meree = Ḥaqībah ; wa, ’Adrīnālīn / ’Aḥmad Mīr‘ī.

Other titles: Plays. Selections | Adrenaline | Ḥaqībah | ’Adrīnālīn

Names: Meree, Ahmad, 1991- author. | Container of (work): Meree, Ahmad, 1991- Ḥaqībah. | Container of (work): Meree, Ahmad, 1991- ’Adrīnālīn. | Container of (expression): Meree, Ahmad, 1991-

Plays. Selections. English.

Description: English and Arabic titles from distinctive title pages; printed back-to-back. | Plays in English and Arabic; translated from the Arabic.

Identifiers: Canadiana 2020037818X | ISBN 9781927922644 (softcover)

Classification: LCC PS8626.E752955 A2 2020 | LCC PJ7946.E74 A2 2020 | DDC 892.7/27—dc23

J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing

P.O. Box 86, RPO Corydon Avenue, Winnipeg, MB Canada R3M 3S3

Suitcase/

Adrenaline

Ahmad Meree

Photograph of the author Ahmad Meree. He is dressed in a blue shirt and a light pink blazer. He is wearing a man bun with an undercut, and sports a moustache with thick beard.

Ahmad Meree

Ahmad Meree is an actor and playwright born in Aleppo, Syria. He is a graduate of the Higher Institute of Theatre Arts in Cairo. Ahmad came to Canada as a refugee in 2016 and currently lives in Kitchener, ON, where he works with MT Space as artistic associate, facilitator and co-director of their Young Company. Ahmad has written three plays, Suitcase (2019), Adrenaline (2017), which he toured to the Ryga Festival in Summerland, BC, SummerWorks Performance Festival in Toronto and UNO Fest in Victoria, BC, and Underground (2014) (Winner of Best Original Script in the Academy competition). Ahmad is also the winner of an emerging artist award at Arts Awards Waterloo Region (2019) and the Best Actor Award at the Central Theatre Festival in Syria (2008); he directed Ionesco’s The Lesson in Egypt and won Best Director Award for directing Chekhov’s The Bear at Cairo’s Festival of International Theatre (2013).

Contents

Playwright’s Notes

Foreword

Suitcase

Adrenaline

Suitcase and Adrenaline appear in their original

Arabic versions in the back of this book.

Playwright’s Notes

There was a time when I did not know whether I would die and vanish or survive to write these words. That was in 2012, in the Shaar neighbourhood of Aleppo in Syria. Despite being surrounded by my family, I still felt afraid and alone under the brutal missile attacks. I took an oath that if I survived, I would tell the entire world about what had been happening in Aleppo. I survived; and here I am writing those words while sitting on a cozy couch in a warm Canadian house enjoying the internet, running water, and electricity. I left Aleppo for Cairo in the same year, immersed in happiness for my survival and passionately excited to study acting at the Egyptian Academy of Arts. In addition to the hard living situation that I struggled through during my study in Egypt, I was sleepless due to what was happening in Syria, and I felt guilty for not being able to do anything about