Inspired by classical Greek tragedy and the devastating effects of the Lebanese civil war, the internationally-renowned play Scorched was originally written in French by the acclaimed Lebanese French Canadian playwright Wajdi Mouawad. Carried aloft by poetic language and evocative imagery, Scorched unfolds in a dreamlike atmosphere connecting the origins of one family in startling and unforgettable ways. A brother and sister raised in Quebec must return to their mother's war-torn country to carry out her last wishes—finding the father and brother they never knew they had.
Theatre meets science when a diverse group of playwrights each agree to take a genealogical DNA test and revisit their assumptions about identity, politics, and the perennial "who am I" question. Self, family, community, and ethnicity are all up for grabs.
Confession is set in Spain towards the end of decades of dictatorship and civil war in the 1930s. On a late winter afternoon, an old American Priest sits waiting to hear confessions in a derelict church. As he begins to fall asleep, the Priest is disturbed by a presence entering the church. Not sure at first if it is real or part of a dream, the Priest eventually recognizes the figure as the Dictator come to say his final confession and receive absolution. The Priest has, however, no intention of granting absolution to a tyrant whom he has always despised. But the Dictator is not used to being thwarted, and an intense power struggle ensues with the characters locked in a deadly embrace.
Talib (Arabic for student) is set amid the aftermath of the Iraq War. Famous Iraqi actress Hannan Al-Najaf is invited by her friend Aida Al-Masri to stage her war drama at a major American university. When she discovers that an Iraq War veteran has been cast in her play, Hannan must confront her past and decide whether or not she can go on with the show. Talib explores the complicated dichotomies of war from the point of view of the soldiers and civilians and asks if, after so much loss on both sides, reconciliation is possible.
After his Buddhist mother dies of cancer, a college-circuit comedian on the road has 100 days to marry in order for his mother's spirit to transition in peace. Reluctant to fulfill this superstitious condition, the man awkwardly reunites with his estranged and married high school sweetheart. The death that reconnects these two as adults turns out to be their source of salvation.
