9 Parts is powerful

by Meghan D'Souza

Dreamwell & ICCT - I will be honest. When I hear someone mention the war in Iraq, my mind goes straight to my personal political thoughts about it, dating back to the first time I learned where Iraq is in the early 90s because of the first war. Sometimes I will think about the civilians and wonder what their thoughts are and what their lives are like, but other than reading an article here and there, I have no way to understand what an Iraqi person is experiencing.

9 Parts of Desire, presented by Dreamwell Theatre and ICCT, is about various Iraqi women's experiences and viewpoints since Iraq has been torn apart by war. The key is that it is about these women's experiences. It isn't a political play, but a poetic play that the playwright, Heather Raffo, comprised after befriending many Iraqi women and learning their stories. Although she did not use their specific stories, she was inspired by what she learned and wrote realistic interpretations. The result is a monologue that painted the mosaic picture of how different Iraqi women have viewed, lived through, and continue to survive the war.

Director Rachel Howell cleverly decided to divide the monologues up among nine talented women who told their individual stories with great passion. Some were so intense and engaging, my heart broke a little and I forced myself to break away mentally so I could take an emotional breather. I'll admit, I felt a little guilty that I had the option to take an emotional break during a play that was about people who never get a break.

One specific heartbreaking story came from Ottavia De Luca, who played a young Iraqi girl. Her eyes were wide with innocence as she nonchalantly explained her life and how she can name a specific gun by its sound. She was angry at her mom for taking her out of school when the American soldiers appeared and thought it was because she waved at them. She thought her mom was overprotective for not letting her go out for fear that she would be kidnapped and sold. She was sad that she had not been in a swimming pool for two years and figured it was because the American soldiers were using it, or maybe it was dried up. Her brothers had been killed in the war, but she was too young to know who they were and didn't feel any emotions about it, but witnessed her mother's intense sadness about losing her boys. She idolized her dad, who she thought was with Saddam Hussein, and she expected him to return at some point.

Listening to De Luca speak like a young girl who is just frustrated with her family and longed to be outside and do fun things reminded me of reading The Diary of Anne Frank. Except this Iraqi Girl did not have enough life experience before the war to know that something like finding bullets is not natural and should not be exciting. While Anne Frank had prewar memories so she could try to create a sort of normal life for herself and hold on to hope for a normal future, the Iraqi Girl simply did not understand why she had to stop going to school and stop going outside alone, but thought hearing machine guns and learning how to shoot a pistol was a part of life. Seeing her so full of energy, but so naive and innocent was absolutely heartbreaking.

Angie Toomsen also did a fantastic job of taking the audience on her character's terrible emotional journey with her. She was an Iraqi American with family members who still lived in Iraq. Even though she lived outwardly in peace, she could never find peace within because she was constantly wondering if her family was okay. She was always watching or reading the news and seeing names of places where her relatives lived and worked and felt unsettled and sick because she could not get in touch with them to know if they were okay. She felt disgusted when the Americans around her felt no empathy for the suffering that people like her family members were going through; she internalized the whole experience. All she could do was watch the news and pray constantly to find comfort. An interesting observation that I discovered the playwright, herself, experienced was when Toomsen's character mentioned hating how the Americans around her cheered for the war on TV at the bars while she hurt for the Iraqis who were burying their loved ones with their own hands in their yards.

The talented cast plus the direction of Rachel Howell most definitely got the playwright's purpose across, which was to give the western audience an intimate glimpse into the real lives of the Iraqi women so we could see them as they are: Women. Not "Other, Unrelatable Beings." All of the stories in the play have incredible perspectives that leave you thinking and feeling like you've really connected with not just another culture, but a completely different way of life and different ways of adapting to it. It's a powerful play.