Theatre in Review: Urge for Going (The Public Theater)

	Ramsey Faragallah and Tala Ashe. Photo: Carol Rosegg

In the most gripping and lyrical sequence in Mona Mansour's new drama, Adham, a Palestinian literature scholar, recalls the day in 1967 when he gave a lecture in London on William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey. He had been intensively coached for this moment in his career, and the lecture was a stunning success. The warm acceptance he receives from an English-speaking audience of literary professionals for his insights into one of the great British poets was moment of triumph only sweetened by the fact that his young wife is in the audience.

As Adham recalls this youthful victory, it is now decades later, and he lives in a refugee camp in Lebanon. His memories are intertwined with those of his relatives -- for, even as Adham was enjoying himself, the Six-Day War was unfolding, an event that would send them into permanent exile from their homeland. (Most of Adham's family rejects the name Six-Day War as a plot to humiliate Arabs. They prefer The Third Arab-Israeli War, or The Setback.) In his lecture, Adham discusses Wordsworth's self-imposed exile from England and his return, and the importance of distance and memory in the creation of poetry; at the same time, his loved ones recall with horror, decades after the fact, the catastrophic events that led to them to live in squalid conditions in a strange country with no foreseeable possibility of change. Theirs is not the memory of emotion recalled in tranquility; instead, they live in an eternal present of frustration informed by the disasters of the past.

At its best, Urge for Going makes vividly clear the plight of Adham and his family, a subject that has been shockingly underrepresented on American stages. But it's a tricky thing to write a play about lives trapped in stasis, and Mansour, a young playwright of real skill, hasn't yet acquired the knack of making drama out of such a situation. Indeed, for much of the play, Adham and his relatives use direct address, explaining their situation and filling out their history; it's often informative approach but it's usually less than gripping.

The main action turns on Adham's daughter, Jamila, a 17-year-old budding scholar who is desperate to get her degree, which will allow her to study abroad. In one of the most mordant scenes, she discovers that Adham, after promising to fill out the paperwork that will allow her to take her final exams, has done nothing. When she confronts him, he turns on her in fury, waving a decades-old passport that has expired, leaving him in a classic catch-22 situation. As another relative notes, "He can't leave the camp because he has no ID. But to get the ID he has to go to the West Bank! Perfect Lebanese logic!"

In fact, we soon come to feel that Adham, having been denied everything in his life, is deeply ambivalent about his daughter's possible success. This is a powerful basis for conflict, but Mansour doesn't give it enough attention, preferring to focus on the chatty supporting characters and giving plenty of time to Jamila's brother, Jul, who, in a somewhat ill-defined subplot, has been brain-damaged during an encounter with a Lebanese soldier and now lives in a state of permanent boyhood. (The highlight of his day is watching an episode of Baywatch on television) Jul's level of intelligence -- andhis ability to articulate his feelings -- seems to fluctuate from scene to scene, undercutting the emotional pull of his story.

One wonders if Mansour, aware that she was working with the goods of conventional family drama - at times, I was oddly reminded of A Raisin in the Sun -- hasn't deliberately downplayed the material's obvious emotions, hoping to achieve a more documentary-like reality. It's an admirable goal, but it leaves you less than fully involved in the vise-like dilemma that grips her characters. As a result, one watches Urge for Going attentively, wondering why it doesn't have a stronger impact.

In any event, Hal Brooks' production is well-acted, especially Tala Ashe as Jamila and Ramsey Faragallah as Adham. It also has a thoroughly authentic production design. Jason Simms' setting, with its white concrete walls pockmarked by holes, the tangle of wires overhead, and the general air of squalor, is a most persuasive hellhole and it is lit with the right unforgiving quality by Tyler Micoleau, Jenny Mannis' costumes feel authentic, as does the sound design by Ryan Rumery and Christian Frederickson, which makes use of various styles of Arab music.

Urge for Going isn't really a success - it ends up shying away from drama too much -- but passages like the ones described above reveal that Mansour is a real playwright and she has found a subject matter that needs further exploring. It's likely that we'll be hearing from her again.--David Barbour