The Green Line takes two story lines set in Beirut a generation apart and weaves them into a fascinating, sometimes mesmerizing, poetic and sad story about two families torn apart by civil war.  It’s written by Makram Ayache and translated by Hiba Sleiman.  It opened on Thursday night at Buddies in Bad Times in a co-production with Factory Theatre and In Arms theatre Company directed by the author.

The first story line concerns engineering students Mona (Zaynna Khalife) and Yara (Basma Baydoun) and it’s set in 1978 at the height of the civil war.  The two young women are from different but equally tragic backgrounds.  Mona’s family is fairly prosperous but her parents have recently been killed.  Yara is a Palestinian who has grown up in refugee camps and has also lost her father to the war.  They are desperate to complete their studies and escape and they fall in love.  It’s an unthinkable relationship in a world where a young woman; Muslim or Christian, is expected to marry the first eligible male her parents find for her.  There’s also Mona’s unstable brother Naseeb (Oshen Aoun), now “head of the family”, who is desperate to get himself and his sister out of Beirut and to “safety” on some land in the mountains they have inherited.

Forty years later Rami (also Oshen Aoun)  has arrived in Beirut from Canada.  He meets a drag queen Fifi/Zidan (Waseem Alzer) at a gay club and they form some sort of relationship.  It slowly emerges that Rami has just buried his father and is on a quest to find a mysterious apartment.  The stories are brilliantly interwoven and the tragic ending of one is, perhaps, redeemed by the successful conclusion of the other.  That double ending is beautifully written and incredibly moving.

It’s technically something of a tour de force.  The timing of the scene/time switches is immaculate.  Set and costumes (Anahita Dehboehie) are evocative; especially Fifi in their phoenix dance outfit and Yara in her wedding finery.  It’s all greatly enhanced by really effective lighting (Jareth Li and Kit Norman) and sound (Chris Pereira and Heidi Chan).  The combination of these in some of the civil war scenes are bordering on terrifying.

The Toronto theatre season is off to a really strong start with a lot of excellent shows playing.  I’d rate The Green Line as up with the very best.  It runs at Buddies in Bad Times until October 4th.

Photo credit: Jeremy Mimnagh