In Plain Arabic - A Play in Two Acts (Hardcover)

A Palestinian student in London disappears. His colleagues, fourteen Arab students each representing a different nationality, meet to decide what to do. The portrayal of their stereotypical national characteristics and attitudes throws a sharp light on the way Arabs see themselves and each other, and their posturing, squabbling, double standards, and inability to act together in the face of a common dilemma call into question the whole idea of "Arab unity." In Egypt, the play was voted Best Play of the Year and it won the Kuwait-based Soad Sabbah Award for Youth Creativity. The International Herald Tribune called it "a milestone in the Arab world"; The Christian Science Monitor hailed it as "a cultural landmark"; Time described it as "remarkable for its biting satire and rarely tolerated self-criticism"; and The Washington Post found it an "honest, though painful, portrait of modern Arab society."