(2017) Playwright Statement: Fouad Teymour on Twice, Thrice, Frice
The Middle East of Our Lives

Conventional wisdom suggests that, when at a dinner party, avoid discussing sex, religion and politics. Not at an Arab dinner party though. When we get together—as I am sure is also the case with many other cultures, we eat great food, we tell jokes, and we engage in endless heated debate about religion and politics. What I call a fun evening. It is through countless of these debates that I have come to develop a passion for finding the answers to some pressing questions that emerge. “Does a Muslim woman need to believe in the male right to polygamy to be considered a pious practicer?” “If a person’s actions are fully sanctioned by their accepted belief system yet collaterally end up hurting others can that person continue to live in peace, or are they tormented by the choices they had to make?” “Could a social structure based on designed inequality be beneficial to the elements of that society, whether they fall to left or right of the inequality equation?”

These ideas eventually crystallized into the first draft of Twice, Thrice, Frice, and my first reader, by choice, was Dr. Manal Hamzeh (The Four Hijabs, Silk Road Rising) who has dedicated her academic career at New Mexico State University to researching the doctrinal limitations imposed by religions on their followers, especially women. I was very pleased when I received a reply that not only eased my fears about the journey I was embarking on, but also taught me a lot about the fundamental essence of the message I was attempting to convey. Dr. Hamzeh’s response was:

“The women [in this play] are constantly negotiating the limitations of the normative interpretations of these hijabs. That is, they are crossing or trying to cross the spiritual hijab in search of gender justice. They are all actively practicing their agency and making sense of their fluid muslimness. It's a sophisticated representation of some Muslim women's lives. This is to confirm that this is a muslim feminist play indeed! Way to go Fouad!”

WIth the encouragement of Manal’s message I continued to develop the script, which eventually caught Jamil Khoury’s eye and received further enhancement at his hands and the hands of our capable director, Kareem Fahmy. I am grateful to Silk Road Rising not only for the opportunity to put Twice, Thrice, Frice in front of an audience, but also for the tremendous help I have received through their involved, caring and nurturing development process.

Having said all that I do not want to leave you with the impression that this play is specifically about one religion and one issue. I hope that you will recognize in the actions and reactions of our characters familiar scenes from daily life that keep reminding us about the relativity of ethics, morals, norms, principles and beliefs when practiced by the individual or by a larger social construct, especially one with influential authority.

Twice, Thrice, Frice is delivered to you in a humourous package because that’s what we do when we get together; we tell jokes.