Sydney Reviews

Left – Mansoor Noor. Photo – Emma Lois. Cover – Perla Escalon and Eli Saad. Photo – Mansoor Noor

Beirut Adrenaline is set in 1986, four years before the official end of the 15 year war in Lebanon. The war that took the lives of an estimated 250,000 people and continues to have an impact today.

The story revolves around ordinary people living in extraordinary times. Where washing is hung, bombs rain down and individuals respond as best they can. One family has separated; Zyad and his sister, Mona, find refuge in Paris, leaving behind a Beirut that still clings to the name the “Pearl of the Orient”. Their brother, Marwan, remains behind, a witness as Beirut falls. Another family endures, Rima a woman whose fiancé has gone missing and whose brother, Toufic, lives with her. Young and impressionable, Toufic, is angry and from the moment he bursts onto the stage you feel his presence and instantly worry for his future. These are their lives and they are terrifyingly normal. 

Nearly 10 years after she saw it in France, Director Anna Jahjah has brought the production to Belvoir Street Theatre and has assembled a strong cast that delivers a story that still rings true today.

Naveen Hanna is brilliant as Rima. She carries the duality of a woman who has the responsibility of everyday life, cooking, cleaning, getting on with her job as well as a woman who is living in the middle of war zone, bullets pockmark her wall, she watches nearby cities burn and fears not only for her missing fiancé but also for her brother, Toufic, who is angry and vulnerable. Hanna plays the epitome of life in a war zone. She comes across as so normal yet you don’t believe it for a moment as she simmers with grief and the stress of her life.

Toufic is played by Mansoor Noor and his characters booms on to the stage loud and energetic. He is celebrating all things American on his balcony in Beirut. The movies, the jeans, the shoes, Coca-cola. He is Steve McQueen, an American movie star taking on Bruce Lee and the Vietcong in his elaborate imagination. But this humour only lasts a short time and uneasiness settles on you as you watch him pace his balcony casually clutching a Kalashnikov always teetering on the edge of humour and hell.

Eli Saad plays both brothers but manages to do a brilliant job of changing his demeanour so much that at first you are convinced that they are indeed two different people. He delivers a powerful speech at the end that I would like to read again so I could know more about the conflict and the forces that influenced both the past and present Lebanon. His conclusion is food for thought and one that lingers after the curtain call.

Mona is the vibrant rebel sister who is played by Sana'a Shaik. Mona is an activist. She feels that she abandoned Lebanon and wants to return not only to her brother but also to a life she remembers as care free and culturally beautiful. She protests against Zyad’s attempts to build a life in Paris. She longs for her home and fights to return.

The beauty of the play is that the characters could be sitting next to you in the audience, they could be your neighbours, they could be your family, it could be you. You are drawn in the decision to stay or to go and the repercussions of that decision. The fact that there is no right answer, no easy answer and as soon as a choice is made it is questioned and even tried to change.

The transition between France and Lebanon is often cleverly done with music. The radio pumps out music in Beirut bringing a sense of normality, grounding the residents to their culture and distracting them from the sounds of gunfire. The actors leave the stage while the music continues to play and the scene changes to an apartment in Paris. Suddenly the song that sounded so joyful becomes nostalgic and it sounds distinctively foreign yet the tune never changed.

The end is abrupt and I had to think about it for some time before I understood what was meant by it. But any play that leaves you thinking has fulfilled its purpose. Beirut Adrenalin is brilliantly performed and offers you a link to the reality of war. Not the brutality of it but the everydayness of it. It hits home that war happens to people, to you and me in any country and it is an important lesson that is highly relevant in the current day discussions of refugees.


Théâtre Excentrique presents
Beirut Adrenaline
Translated from French by Anna Jahjah and Kris Shalvey

Directed by Anna Jahjah

Venue: Downstairs Theatre | Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir Street, Surry Hills NSW
Dates: 28 July – 14 August 2016
Tickets: $45 – $32
Bookings: belvoir.com.au