The play “Rosemary”… the struggle of the mind and the heart and the lesson in the endings
The play “Rosemary” by director Shadi El Haber deals with the eternal conflict between the mind and the heart. Based on the plot of journalist Elie Moukarzel, which represents his first experience of this kind, we follow a strange and interesting story at the same time, whose two heroines are the actresses Berit Qatrib and Maya Yammine.
The play is shown on the Mono stage in Beirut, and takes about an hour. From the first moments of the show, the viewer is busy unlocking her keys. Director Al-Habr used a set of tools to attract the attention of his followers, as well as to motivate them to analyze and think. This prompts the audience from the first minute to ask questions about ambiguous situations that they do not understand.
The story revolves around two women, Rose (Maya Yammine) and Mary (Biyarit Qatrib). One of them relies on thought and reason to overcome her problems, while the second is romantic to the utmost extent, and her heart is her guide.
The two women are very close friends, so much so that the viewer imagines that they are two women with one head. This is what director Al-Habr tries to suggest through many situations that you go through together. They open their hearts to each other, and exchange conversations clearly and without evasion. In the context of the events of the play, they address social and humanitarian topics and others about bullying, and they keep pace with the modernization of social media, media stardom, and the repercussions of fame on its owners. The two women do not hesitate to reveal their feelings and share conversations and memories about their romantic relationships.
Biaret Qatrib (Marie) embodies the role of a romantic woman par excellence. She follows her heart and feelings of love, and puts them ahead of others. With her fine figure, she presents a show that combines the expressive arts of dancing and acting. With the lighting reflecting its spectrum on the stage, it creates a beautiful gestural painting to the beat of calm flamenco music.
As for Maya Yammine (Rose), she takes on the role of an apparently strong woman, but she soon loses her toughness in a scene in which she talks about her late mother, attracting the audience with a professional and realistic performance. Especially since her emotion is real, tears flow from her eyes, and she immerses herself in a state of actual sadness and grief on stage, which prompted the audience to applaud her for a long time.
Two contradictory women are experiencing a conflict between the mind and the heart. Director Shadi El Haber relies on songs by Fayrouz and Hani Shaker to alleviate this existing conflict between them.
The play does not miss scenes full of black comedy, and the audience laughs in harmony with it, despite the womb of tragedies from which it is born several times.
The imprints of a life burdened with many failures and few successes are filled with pauses with oneself. Just like Rose, so too does Mary, reminiscing about their lives, remembering, regretting, and laughing at themselves again.
A follower of the play will notice an exaggeration in the practice of laughter several times, and repetitions of the word “foolishness” more than once. But the answer to this repetition is discovered at the end of the work. The lesson lies in the endings, which is what characterizes the play with excitement and suspense.
The play conveys different messages about the impact of parents’ upbringing on their children, the masculinity present in the concept of disappointment when a girl is born instead of a boy, and the absence of the father, which causes psychological distress in the daughter. The mother’s endless sacrifices for the sake of the children’s happiness are reflected in a feeling of security for them, but the pain continues to multiply despite the long passage of time. And loneliness continues to glow and escalates day after day.
These are all social factors that the two women thought they had overcome, but to no avail.
They did not know true feelings of joy, not even those related to sadness. They ignore their feelings and become more preoccupied with their personality structure. As for death, they could not face it properly. One of them is happy to hear the news of a relative’s death, and the second considers the separation of her beloved a death of a different kind. Therefore, they do not hesitate to announce the “International Day of the Dead” while smiling.
In the end, the truth appears as it is with a surprise that the viewer does not expect, and the curtain falls on the two heroines of the play so that we realize that the two make up one “Rosemary,” and that man is his own enemy in the end.
