“The Shroud Maker”

[rating=3] Having recently been on a family trip to Israel, I think what I learned today in Ahmed Mousad’s “The Shroud Maker” helped me to understand some of the places that I visited, from a different perspective. In this one-woman performance now on stage at Chicago Dramatists ( welcome back to live theater) Roxane Assaf-Lynn tells us the story of Hajja Souad, an octogenarian, who lived on The Gaza Strip  and the stories of her existence as a shroud maker.

Her stories may or may not be exact and true. After all, when it comes to “war stories” each side sees things in a slightly different way. She survived decades of war and turbulence making shrouds for those who died during all of the turbulence. As she said, “Why not wear the best of the best” After all “this is a once-in-a-lifetime purchase” so why not look your best”.

I never knew about shrouds and the importance of their look and textured fabric.  This is a true “black Comedy” that deals with the pain that the Palestinians in the Gaza have lived through over these many years. The stories have truth mixed with fantasy and satire, so one cannot know for sure where the truth starts and ends. It is however a very mind-opening 80 minutes of theater with a charming hostess in Assaf-Lynn.

Smoothly directed by Marina Johnson, our Shroud Maker and her Singer sewing machine ( just like my grandmother’s) take center stage on a set designed by Johnathan Berg-Einhorn. The sound (Ronnie Malley and Eric Backus) is perfect and the lighting by Mary Mouton is right on. The credits list two people on the costumes ( Raja Alkam & Nevin Abdelghani) but I am thinking that they also designed the costumes that are on the wall in the lobby of the theater that are outstanding.

This is the United States Premiere and we are very lucky that they have selected Chicago’s very intimate space, the Chicago Dramatists for this honor.

“The Shroud Maker” will continue thru April 8th at this theater located at 798 Aberdeen with performances as follows:

Fridays  7:30 p.m.

Saturdays  7:30 p.m.

Sundays  3 p.m.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased by visiting www.IVPChicago.org

This presentation is being brought here by The International Voices Project

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “The Shroud Maker”.