A History of Water in the Middle East

Sabrina Mahfouz

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781350156845
• eBook ISBN: 9781350156852
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Can you hear it,
the hiss of water wiggling
its way out into the world
uncaptured, wasted, wanton? British-Egyptian Sabrina Mahfouz grew up with ambitions of being a spy. She has two passports, speaks two languages and has a cultural understanding of two very different countries. But when it came to applying for MI6, it turned out she wasn't quite British enough. So now she's on her own intelligence mission – to explore who really holds the power in and over the Middle East. In a world long obsessed with access to oil, will water soon become the natural resource that dictates control, or has it been all along? A History of Water in the Middle East journeys across twelve different countries using theatre, poetry and music to share stories of women across the region. From the British Imperialist ownership of natural resources, to the environmental urgency of the present, water has shaped lives, policies and fortunes – and it will shape all of our futures. This edition published to coincide with the premiere at the Royal Court in October 2019.

Characters

Laura

Sabrina

Kareem

Spy

Lines to be sung are in italic.

A horizontal rule indicates some kind of change in the space.

Gig time: to be set up for music/tracks. Although there is a soundscape to the whole piece, these are more focused musical moments.

Lecture mode: to be set up like a presentation/lecture.

Spy world: to be for developed spy-vetting interview.

This is a work of fiction.

Gig time.

Landscape, Lives, Legacies tune. Laura and Kareem jamming as audience come in.

Laura Landscapes, lives, legacies (Six times.)

Polluted

Depleting

Flooding

What form can something take without water?

Sabrina comes in.

Sabrina Water shapes landscapes, lives, legacies.

We are around 65 per cent made up of it ourselves.

We are more water than we are

anything else.

Omnipresent

miniscule to massive

stem cells to glaciers,

polluted, depleted, flooding.

Omnipresent

miniscule to massive

stem cells to glaciers

polluted, depleted, flooding.

What form

can something take

without water?

———————————————————————————————————————

Lecture mode.

Sabrina Hi. Welcome everyone.

Laura Great to have you here with us.

We are here today to give a lecture on the –

Sabrina The highly edited highly condensed –

Laura History of water in the Middle East –

Sabrina Let me just repeat that again, especially for any Middle Easterners and/or history professors in the house – this is a highly edited, highly condensed –

Laura History of water in the Middle East –

Sabrina More specifically,

the history of how

the water in the Middle East

has been used by Britain

for its imperial purposes.

And how that has affected billions of –

Laura Landscapes, lives, legacies –

Sabrina Hear that? I’ve never given a lecture before

and lectures are generally pretty dry

so I thought, as you might have guessed,

let’s do it as a bit of a gig instead,

but, well, I can’t sing.

Laura So I came in. Laura, hi.

Sabrina Or play any instruments.

Kareem Hi. Kareem.

Sabrina We’re all British Middle Eastern by the way.

I’m Egyptian.

Laura So am I. And it’s really North Africa

if you want to be geographically correct –

Sabrina But if we did that then

Cyprus is in the Middle East

and if Egypt is then why not Sudan

and Ethiopia and Eritrea and Djibouti

and nobody defines things

by pure geography really do they?

Laura But Egypt does at least have

a sliver of itself in that area

and is pivotal in its politics

so politically, it’s the Middle East.

Sabrina Half, I am. I mean half-Egyptian that is.

Laura Me too.

Sabrina I hate saying that –

Laura Me too.

Sabrina Half is such an annoying phrase

when it comes to an identity.

Laura Everyone is full.

Sabrina Yes! What makes us

is what makes us,

the percentages are capitalistic measurements

on human existence

and at very best, a guess.

Laura But even if we didn’t say half

others would ask because we don’t look

how anyone wants an Egyptian to look.

Sabrina Even though Elizabeth Taylor

looked Egyptian enough to play Cleopatra

and Scarlett Johansson would of course be able

to portray Nefertiti – or a tree.

Laura We could be here all day for that.

Sabrina True say. Okay, focus.

Laura Egypt.

Sabrina How I fell in love with the subject

of wat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• A History of Water in the Middle East
• The Royal Court Theatre
• Royal Court: Coming up at the Royal Court
• Royal Court: Assisted Performances
• Royal Court Supporters
• Royal Court: Bar & Kitchen
• Characters
• eCopyright