The Play in Arabic

On Thursday evening, a group of students (myself included) ventured to the Royal Cultural Center to see a play in Jordanian colloquial dialect. The title of the play was "Gazal Mezeyon" (roughly, at least). We arrived at the Royal Cultural Center about 15 minutes before the start of the play. We were led downstairs to the theater. Upon walking in, we realized that we should have come earlier. The seats were all taken as was some of the floor space. An usher (of sorts) gestured to remaining floor space where it would be okay if we sat. Essentially, we were sitting on stage right (in theater lingo) looking directly onto the stage. Prime location.

The stage was set with a few stools and chairs in a line for the actors. The writer welcomed the crowed and then the play began with a song. The music of the play was incredible. The singers and instrumentalists were so talented. The play in itself was strange. First of all, it was nearly impossible to understand because of the speed of their speaking and because of the dialect. Second, the plot was not self-evident. After the play, two native speakers admitted to not being able to understand everything was going on. Third, the play contained a character who was thought to be dead but not actually dead. Finally, there was a love triangle between non-actually-dead-man, his father and some girl. There was also glitter which was able to revive not-actually-dead-man. If you can't tell, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing.The play lasted for about an hour and a half. After, Acrum (a native Jordanian) gave us a brief overview of the plot. That helped.