LES JUSTES by Albert Camus
A new translation and adaptation by Rahaleh Nassri
Play produced in Washington, DC February 2012
WSC Avant Bard’s Les Justes takes an unflinching look at the kind of people who value their principles above all else, for whom the ends justify the means. They’re stirred by noble causes and willing to sacrifice all personal satisfaction to achieve a shot at a better world. They’re the heroes, really, of Les Justes. Except our heroes in Les Justes are terrorists.
— The Washingtonian
House of Strength
a play
Inspired by the 1953 Iranian democratic movement raging around her, 15-year-old Eteram courageously disrupts the sanctity of the Zoorkhaneh, literally "house of strength," where her father practices an ancient form of physical, philosophical and spiritual training. Defying her father and the codes of the male sanctum, where even a woman's breath is forbidden, she falls in love with a wrestler bound for America. A lifetime later Iranian-American filmmaker Neda travels to Tehran in the midst of the 2009 uprisings to document the very traditions Eteram was desperate to break. Tensions mount between the distinct strong men who inhabit the Zoorkhaneh and the women who invade their space as the strain of unfulfilled dreams, lost loves and political disappointments reach a breaking point, and the stories of the two eras converge in the House of Strength.
Staged Reading: Noor Theatre in Residence at New York Theatre Workshop - November 18, 2013 - directed by Sarna Lapine
The Safari Club
a four part limited series for television
In America, no matter how successful you are, you will never be good enough. Following a failed love affair with Audrey Hepburn, legendary film star William Holden escapes Hollywood to rural Kenya and builds a members-only safari resort, but his relentless pursuit of booze and proximity to the world’s elite mires him in a web of corrupt world leaders, titans of industry, and ultimately rogue elements of the CIA. Four part limited series based on actual events.
Throuple
a play
Sex historian Viv and her TV actor husband Luka have been together since they were 15. They’ve never been with anyone else until they fall in love, together, with their best friend Mina. To their surprise, Mina reciprocates and they embark on a thrilling courtship. It all goes way better than expected until Viv pushes the threesome to go public. Luka’s pulicity machine can be massaged, but what about Mina’s Middle Eastern parents? Not to mention her Senate job. Can she ever truly commit, and come out? Or is this longtime commitment-phobe slash serial monogamist destined to leave the couple. And if she does, can they ever go back to being just Luka and Viv?
Bonded
a play
BONDED deals with modern day slavery and sex trafficking. The play is set inside a lavish hotel suite in Dubai with an international cast of characters, six women and two men. This is where the upper crust and those who are barely surviving collide, where the horrifying underbelly of globalization and capitalism is at its worst. It is where a protective and well-meaning father may forever lose the trust of his wayward daughter.