Incendies (play)

Incendies
Nawal's mother in a 2012 performance at the Lise-Guèvremont theatre, Montreal
Written by	Wajdi Mouawad
Characters	Simon Marwan Jeanne Marwan Nawal Marwan
Date premiered	2003
Original language	French
Genre	Tragedy[1][2][3]

Incendies is a 2003 play by Wajdi Mouawad.^[4] The play was translated into English as Scorched by Linda Gaboriau and was published in 2005 by Playwrights Canada Press.

The play was based on parts of the life of the Lebanese communist militant Souha Bechara.^[5][6][7][8] Charlotte Facet notes that Mouawad met with Bechara before writing the play, but adds that some of the material is adapted from Randa Chahal Sabag's film work on and with Bechara,^[9] while noting that many of the characteristics of Bechara are divided among the main characters including Jeanne and Simon, rather than Nawal alone.^[10]

It was the second part of a thematically-related, but not strictly sequential, trilogy of plays about characters of Middle Eastern origins confronting family secrets, preceded by Tideline (Littoral) and followed by Forests (Forêts).^[11]

Plot

Incendies follows the journey of twins Jeanne (Janine in the English translation) and Simon, as they attempt to unravel the mystery of their mother's life.^[4] When Jeanne and Simon Marwan lose their mother, Nawal, they are instead left with a difficult mission that sends them on a journey to the Middle East in pursuit of their tangled roots and a long-lost brother.^[12]

Awards

The 2007 production at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including Best Play and Best Director (for Richard Rose).^[13] The production has been remounted several times and went on a cross-Canada tour in 2008–2009.^[14]

Film version

Incendies was adapted into a 2010 film of the same title by Denis Villeneuve. It stars Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, and Lubna Azabal. It was nominated for the 2011 Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

References

1. Viriasova, Inna; Calcagno, Antonio (25 June 2018). Roberto Esposito. p. 219. ISBN 9781438470368.
2. Carroll, Noël; Gibson, John (2011). Narrative, Emotion, and Insight. p. 155. ISBN 9780271048574.
3. Lipscomb, Antonella; Losada, José Manuel (6 November 2017). Myth and Emotions. p. 326. ISBN 9781527505094.
4. Mouawad, Wajdi (2005). Scorched (9780887547607): Wajdi Mouawad: Books. ISBN 0887547605.
5. Holstun, Jim (Fall 2015). "Antigone Becomes Jocasta: Soha Bechara, Résistante, and Incendies". Mediations vol. 29, no. 1. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
6. "Seeing yourself re-made as fiction". Archived from the original on 2013-09-16. Retrieved 2019-04-13.
7. "Lebanese civil war explodes screen Incendies". 24 May 2011.
8. "Incendies". Archived from the original on 2011-11-29. Retrieved 2019-04-13.
9. Mouawad, Wajdi (2018). Incendies. Montreal: Leméac. p. 145. ISBN 978-2-7609-36188.
10. Mouawad, Wajdi (2018). Incendies. Montreal: Leméac. p. 146. ISBN 978-2-7609-36188.
11. J. Kelly Nestruck, "Mouawad fails, but in an interesting way". The Globe and Mail, July 20, 2009.
12. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1255953/plotsummary ^{[user-generated source]}
13. [1]
14. [2] Archived August 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine