Amany El-Sawy, The Sun: All One and the Same. A Play in One Act

Amany El-Sawy, The Sun. Synopsis

Amany El-Sawy, The Sun. Introduction

Amany El-Sawy,  The Sun: A Play In One Act. The Complete Text

THE SUN

All One and the Same

A play in one act

Synopsis

The play takes place in a café in Alexandria facing the sea near Bibliotheca Alexandrina at late night. The café is dim and empty. There is a half-lighted decorated Christmas tree in the right corner. There are a sleepy waiter and a dreamy tired waitress, putting on a pair of earphones. She is devoted to the work, but her face seems to be shut. She unplugged the earphones, and the sound of the music fills the air. The Waitress’ eyes are full of her crystal tears; she stops working and contemplates the song. She goes around and around in a circular movement. All of a sudden an old man (Shylock) appears in weird clothes, wearing a red cap. The waitress is shocked and gazes at him. Shylock is looking around searching for the very rich lady who invited him to celebrate the Christmas Eve.  The waitress is still puzzled and seems to be mystified, but she didn’t show any kind of indifference or detachment towards shylock. Similarly, shylock is amazed because of her great sign of respect.

Shylock starts to lose his temper because the Lady is late, and he talks to the waitress about her. Again, the waitress is surprised to know that this lady was once upon a time a queen. She is Lady Macbeth who opens the door of the café and appears in her white gown and a golden rope around her neck. She is obsessed by the invisible spots of blood on her hands, and is always rubbing them. Shylock is eager to celebrate the Eve, but Lady Macbeth wants to wait for the third guest, Elisabeth Rousset. Shylock again is furious to know that the third guest who are going to celebrate the Eve is Elisabeth Rousset, Boule de Suif the Prostitute. Lady Macbeth and Shylock are arguing upon Boule de Suif’s matter. At the beginning, Shylock was against the idea to sit with a prostitute, but after Lady Macbeth’s touching squabble upon their “otherness” he gradually accepts the situation. Boule de Suif comes, holding her picnic basket, and greets Shylock and Lady Macbeth. Boule de Suif is touched by the dim look upon the waitress’s face and understands her reasons to work late in the café and her poverty.

Now the three guests are ready to celebrate the New Year and their freedom. The sleepy waiter suddenly wakes up, and is shocked by the guests’ loud voice and appearance. Shylock hides his face with one hand and his cap with the other. The café’s door is opened, and, Mounir, a very handsome man, in his twenties enters, holding his laptop, sitting on a table next to the three guests. Lady Macbeth and Boule de Suif greet Mounir and they introduce themselves to him. Shylock at the beginning was reluctant to introduce himself then the ice melts. The three guests are pleased with Mounir and are surprised to find that he knows their characters and does sympathize with the Jew, the prostitute and the fourth witch.

Amany El-Sawy

Copyright 2018 Amany El-Sawy

 

 

THE SUN

THE SUN
All One and the Same
A play in one act
Introduction

In a world full of oppression, “othernization” spreads. Many can fall under the umbrella of the cruelty of subjugation and be the “others’. Women, Jews and the poor suffer a lot in their oppressive worlds which don’t tolerate their existence. Nevertheless, these worlds are full of domineering ‘selves’ who live upon those others’ dead corpses and suck their blood. These tyrannical and repressive beings enjoy being like parasites vermin, yet viewing themselves with a magnifying glass as superior faultless gods. Additionally, the tumor of oppression knows no limits and never be diminished by time nor place. Oppression is the same since the creation of Eve. Thus, coercion is the genesis of my first precious play The Sun. All the characters are oppressed and discriminated in their own time and place without any exceptions. The Sun; All One and the Same (A play in one act) takes place in A café in Alexandria facing the sea near Bibliotheca Alexandrina at late night. The play starts with the entrance of Shakespeare’s Shylock who visits Egypt to get together with Lady Macbeth and Maupassant’s Boule de Suif to celebrate the Christmas Eve. The three fictional guests meet Mounir a young gentleman who tolerate their points of weakness, sees their humanity and finally joins the guests and the Waitress to celebrate their eccentricity. In resistance to their “otherization” by hegemonic and anti-Semitic discourses, the characters have worked towards constructing a counter- hegemonic discourse that brings themselves together from the mainstream and the margins to build solidarities amongst them, resist subordination, and forget about their otherness. They struggle to find a space in which they are not restricted by the cultural and patriarchal norms or by anti-Semitic one set by the hegemonic cultures.

Copyright 2018 Amany El-Sawy