March 5, 2008
By Al Bresloff

Everyone has their own views of everyone else, even when we know little about them and in the United States we have a large Middle Eastern population, who since 9/11 are looked at in a different light. It is not just how Americans feel about Arabs and Muslims, but they themselves have some identity issues. In Yussef El Guindi's World Premiere play "Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat", we as outsiders get a glimpse into the lives of some of these people.

In this sparkling production by the Silk Road Theatre Project, director Patricia Acerra takes us on a journey into the Arab world and that of publishing. Our main characters are authors- one a struggling writer Gamal ( a strong performance by Kareem Bandealy) who frustrated by the limited voice of his community attempts to shake up the system, First, pretending to be the make-up man at a television set where author Moshen ( Andrew Navarro brings just the right charm to this character) is set to publicize and discuss his book, he later waits outside a radio station and attacks Sheikh Alfani ( Vincent P. Mahler) first with words and then with a cake in his face while the Sheikh's son Hani ( James Elly, whose character becomes more major as the story goes on) does nothing to defend his father.

While these things are taking place, Gamal's girlfriend, Noor ( the lovely and very talented Monica Lopez) is meeting with the same publisher that published Moshen's book, about selling a book she has written, a love story. Her editor, Olivia ( who has also been lover to Moshen) wants this Egyptian woman to write the book differently, to make it more about an Arab woman rather than an American woman and proceeds to ask Moshen to help her. When Moshen finds out that the man who attacked him is her boyfriend, he gets her drunk and spends the night with her- a sort of revenge for what Gamal did to him. Gamal comes home to find them and some of what are the customs of Egypt and the Muslim community.

While all this is going on, Hani is back in Egypt visiting his extended family and learning more about his culture. While he is gone, he finds that an arsonist has destroyed the Mosque that his father has built and he also comes back to tend to his father and to find his own revenge.

This is a well written story of love, lust, hate, fear and a look at the Arab-American community that we do not often get a glimpse into, so besides being excellent theater, it is also a learning experience of a culture that we need to be aware of in the United States. The ending, which I will not reveal will make you think. Not only about the story you have just witnessed, but in fact society itself. This production moves swiftly making the 2 hours plus easy to sit for. The only flaw that I saw in this production was that some of the lighting cues were wrong or the actors couldn't find their X, other than that, this is a flawless, worthwhile experience for theater-goers no matter what ethnicity.