This weekend, four women in Dubai will attempt to piece together a theatrical presentation using just one question: What is home?
Comedian Mina Liccione, spoken word artist Farah Chamma, actress and poet Dana Dajani and writer Victoria Armador will perform a series of monologues, interspersed with live music and visual presentations, in a show called Invisible Cities: Words and rhythms about a place called Home. Two performances will be held on Saturday, May 21, at The Fridge, Al Serkal Avenue, in Dubai.
Liccione, the co-founder of Dubai comedy school Dubomedy, is the director.
“Speaking to a lot of expats, many of us don’t know what’s home anymore,” she says. “When I go back to the country I’m from, it doesn’t feel like home anymore. So I brought together a bunch of talented women and asked them where is home.
“We wanted to tell stories. And also remind people the profound truth to go, wherever it is they call home, a bit more often. To make a bit more effort. Because so many people can’t even go if they wanted to.”
The theatrical presentation has a poignant origin. New York-raised Liccione set up Dubomedy with her husband Ali Al Sayed eight years ago. One of the school’s volunteering projects, Clowns Who Care, involves travelling to support centres around the world and attempt to bring some smiles. Much of their efforts in the past few years have been focused on refugee camps in Syria and Jordan.
“Last December we were at the Gaza Refugee Camp in Jerash, Jordan, and I met these two Palentinian women who told me about their lives, and I couldn’t get it out of my head,” Liccione recalls.
“Their camp was in a terrible state. It was like a slum. It was cold and freezing. There was a different energy and a different vibe. Yet that was their home. And then at the same time, they longed to go back to their real home. They told me of this family, who, after 30 years in the camp, still had the key to their home in Palestine.”
Liccione will perform two pieces: The first one called Umm Noor, inspired by the two women she met at the refugee camp, and the other one, That One Time in New York, a whimsical story inspired by her grandmother and an encounter with a homeless woman.
It’s not all gloom, she assures.
“There are some strong comical moments, music, tap dance, beatboxing and a beautiful blend of different artistic flavours,” she says.
The four women will be joined by soundscape designer Ahmad Molham Makki and a Dubai beatboxer who only goes by the name Beatbox Ray.
“We want to inspire people to remind them about what’s important in their lives,” says Liccione about Invisible Cities. “I can speak for myself and my husband: We get messages from friends to meet up, and then months can go by, sometimes years, before you met them.
“We just want to remind people that at the end of the day, home is the people in our lives. That people that we love. And sometimes all we need to do is pick up the phone and make the connection.”
EXCERPTS FROM INVISIBLE CITIES
“The only place I feel at home is when I’m driving, moving while sitting still. Flying though standing still. I wonder if that is where my home really lies — I seem to fly through life, through jobs, through cities and countries, through romances, through time zones, through friends.”
— From Life as a Road Trip by Victoria Amador
This city is surrounded by water
and you are carried.
You melt in it,
like a caterpillar in its cocoon.
What is the outer world
when you are within?
— From spoken word piece Embryo by Farah Chamma
“I love Little Italy. It’s the home to some of Manhattan’s longest standing restaurants and bakeries. You can smell the bread baking. See the fresh cannolis and gelato through the glass. Hear broken Itanglish alongside Frank Sinatra on an organ grinder. You can buy anything with quotes from The Godfather on it. And I mean anything. Now that’s an offer you can’t refuse!”
— From That One Time in New York by Mina Liccione
“I live in this tent for nine months now. Just as my daughters lived in me for nine months… this is temborary. I will return one day. I keep my key. The key to our house that was my aunt’s before us and her aunt’s before her. I hold it in my hand every day.”
— From Umm Noor by Mina Liccione
“I’ve been wandering on my own searching for a place to rest my bones and I’ve been thinking ’bout my dreams and what they really mean to me now I’ve got something for you to see.”
— From the song The Quest Home by Dana Dajani.
DON’T MISS IT
There will be two performances of Invisible Cities: Words and rhythms about a place called Home at The Fridge, Al Serkal Avenue on Saturday, May 21, at 3.30 and 7.30pm. Admission is Dh80. Call 800 COMEDY or LOL@Dubomedy.com for tickets and inquiries.
