FANA!
by
Thomas M. Kelly
ISBN #1-933159-42-1
#2005-0038
Cast Requirements: 8M/4W
- ZHEV SCHULL: African Jew, reservist/soldier, an Israeli professor
at Tel Aviv University, 40 – 45.
- MOUIN/MOSHE:
(moy-sha):
A Palestinian terrorist,
20–23, suicide/homicide/martyr bomber.
- CHITRA LAHIRI: Indian, Hindu, playwright/author
- UM NADAL:
Wasfiyeh Harafat, “mother of struggle”.
Palestinian
mother of Mouin and Wafa, 55 – 65.
- WAFA HARAFAT: the daughter of Wasfiyeh Harafat: A
suicide/bomber/martyr in waiting. 22–25, divorced, mother of 4-year-old son.
- BRADLEY CUNNINGHAM: Reporter INCTV, British accent.
- JEFFERY: INCTV television anchor, British accent
- CAMERAMAN: (not required).
- RADIO VOICES (Man & Woman): Saul Jaffee and Ariel
(voice-over).
- MOUIN’S TRAINER: (on video).
Plot Summary
Six Palestinian murder/suicide bombers have targeted a
Tel-Aviv Culture Center. In the four-story complex each bomber is assigned a floor to
detonate himself, with the exception of the theater, which has two assigned bombers. They
are to explode in rapid succession for maximum effect: to bring the building down on the
hundreds of gallery visitors, planetarium viewers, and the theater audience. The
explosions take place as planned except for one. In the lower level, ten meters below
street level only one of the bombers exploded as planned. The sixth bomber fails to
explode. The bomber is instead trapped beneath the rubble and bodies of the victims.
Another survivor, a guard, (a member of the Israel Defense Force),
who, as a civilian is a Tel-Aviv University professor (of the Diaspora: the flight of the
Jews and the Palestinians), finds the surviving bomber (unknown to him as a bomber).
The guard’s father is Jewish. His mother is Muslim. A third survivor is a playwright
from India. She is Hindu. The three survivors in the lower level, the theater, spend their
waiting hours justifying their lives and religions: one very honestly, the other
deceitfully. In a mental duel the three argue the rationale of murder/suicide bombings
using the Qur’an and the Torah as authority. The guard reveals that he is a
‘refusnik’ (a member of the IDF who has refused to participate in the defense of
Israel, arguing that he cannot in good conscience, humiliate, harass and violate the
dignity of the Palestinians). For his conscientious position he is jailed, then placed
on guard duty at the Center. The story fades to an interview at the newly decorated
and furnished home of the suicide bomber, where his mother has revealed to the public
that she has condoned and encouraged her son’s martyrdom. Videotape made by a
clandestine television station based in Lebanon reveals the preparations of her son’s
martyrdom. (A public relations piece for the cause of Allah.) Two diverse, but
surprisingly similar, religions are placed in a situation that has an ending that
foretells the outcome of the centuries of wars caused by men trying to prove that their
god is the right god. Did anyone ever ask god? The story ends with the martyr revealing
his identity, the final collapse of the building, causing the subsequent remaining
explosion, and fade to the Independent News Corporation (a IBC type news
organization) broadcast viewed in the home of the mother.
Setting
The play takes place in a theatre beneath a four level museum
and planetarium in a cultural complex in Tel-Aviv and in the Gaza City home of Wasfiyeh
Harrafat. The small theatre is in the lower level (ten meters below street level) of the
complex with seating capacity of 50. The home is spacious by Gaza standards, with tiled
gaudy walls, furnished with new furniture, a wide-screen television, etc.
Videotape of Mouin and his trainer, etc., arriving at home of Um Nadal .
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Author Biography
Thomas
M. Kelly
is
the owner and Artistic director of the award-winning Thistle Dew Theatre, and founder of
the Thistle Dew Playwright’s Workshop. Local
awards: Several “Elly” nominations and two Elly Awards: Best Overall Production
for
A
Shayna Madel
and
best Set
for
Nighthawks and Night Café,
based on the painting “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper.
He
has written and produced many children’s plays.
They feature Charlie (Prince Charlemagne de Coquille), a French Briard
puppy, and Jay (Jaida de les Etoiles), a Persian Red Point feline”
This
is not our backyard, Charlie,
You’re
in trouble now, Charlie,
and
Wake
up, Jay! It’s Christmas!,
2006 winner of four local Elly Awards for Young People’s Theatre including Best
Overall production.
Kelly’s
honors: The Butterfly Within is included in the Eileen Heckart Senior Drama Archives in
the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State University.
JAC
Publishing & Promotions has published the following Kelly plays:
Fana!
(The
ordeal of three trapped survivors of suicide bomb blasts who spend their last hours
justifying their lives and religions: two very honestly; the third very deceitfully. In a mental duel, the three argue the rationale of
murder/suicide bombings using the Qur’an, Hindu philosophy and the Torah as
authority.); and
smile,
and smile, and be a villain
(A
frightening glimpse at the life of a victim of Borderline Personality Disorder).
Ba-Bang!
A Political Cartoon Play
Some
of Kelly’s other works:
Ole’
Gimlet Eye
is
a biographical play about Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, U.S.M.C. A man who defied the powers that were to wage a
war against war in the days before World War II: “War is a racket! I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.” In the 1930s, he revealed to the then ill
President Roosevelt a scheme to replace him. Roosevelt,
with a “Presidential Assistant” by a conglomerate of financiers, bankers and
industrialists, and he, Butler, would be appointed as the new “Dictator.”
Zen and the Art of Making Par, Extreme Unction
and
How
to Improve Your Life in Four Easy Moves
are
more recent, full-length and one-act plays.
8/6/10 -
Thomas M. Kelly
Buzz:
Sac Live: Thistle Dew Theatre presents comedic helping
of "Thirds" by Marcus Crowder,
The Sacramento (CA) Bee
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