A prolific playwright in the US, Egyptian-American playwright Yussef El Guindi explores, through his dramatic work, the immigrant experience. Addressing the personal, political and social encounters of those trying to adapt to new western countries and cultures, his plays are conceived and shaped with intelligence, sensibility and humour.
This collection brings together works that span his career, from his first major play, Back of the Throat, to his boldly topical Threesome, throughout which he delves into the complex issues commonly felt by Arab immigrants in the US: Arabophobia, Islamophobia, media orientalism and bi-cultural issues.
The plays featured in the anthology are:
Back of the Throat
Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat
Language Rooms
Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World
Threesome
Packed with supplementary information that expands upon and contextualises El Guindi's work, this collection is both an excellent compendium and a resource for study. Additional material includes: an annotated timeline of the playwright's life and work; an introduction by Professor Michael Malek Najjar (University of Oregon) that draws out themes within the plays and examines El Guindi's place in American theatre in the post-9/11 era; production stills of some productions of El Guindi's work; and El Guindi's essay Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet Abdallah and Ahmed: Musings about Arabs and Muslims in American Theatre.
To refer to Yussef El Guindi as only an influential Arab-American playwright would be to taper off the width of his contributions to world theater. While the human experiences within which he writes include many liminal characters living "in-and-between" time and space, his overall dramatic view of humanity is universal and transcends the lens of hybridity. Yussef El Guindi composes his plays with precision, intellect and humor; and with a supertext that connects all his works together. Yussef El Guindi writes with both reader and spectator in mind and his work is both dramatic literature and theatrical.
