Nine Parts of Desire: In the Words of the Women of Iraq

No doubt Americans will be hearing more and more about the war in Iraq as Election Day draws nearer, but some of the most significant words spoken on the subject can now be heard on stage at the Manhattan Ensemble Theater, where Iraqi-American playwright/actress Heather Raffo portrays a collection of women experiencing the tragic events first hand in Nine Parts of Desire.

This passionate, engrossing and deeply moving solo play was developed from eleven years of interviews with Iraqi women both living in their homeland and living abroad, concerning issues of religious and sexual repression, the destruction of their homes and the deaths of their loved ones throughout Saddam's regime and during the two Gulf Wars. It comes to New York after an engagement at London's Bush Theatre (I will refrain.) and although the play is not anti-American, there are views expressed which supporters of the current conflict will certainly disagree with.

In chameleon-like fashion, Raffo embodies an assortment of women from many different walks of Iraqi life in a series of five to ten minute monologues. Most characters are revisited one or two more times during the swift moving 90 minutes and we find unexpected connections as well as tragic endings.

The hip Baghdad artist who painted Saddam Hussein's official portrait specializes in nudes using her face on other women's bodies; a symbolic gesture no doubt inspired by the continual sexual abuse she's endured to retain her high status. She flippantly defends her decision to stay in Iraq rather than be an unknown painter in a safer environment. A child proudly shows off her ability to identify specific types of bombs just by listening to the sounds they make as they fall in the distance, and confesses a fascination with the cute American soldiers that now guard her school. "They all look like Justin Timberlake!", she says with wonder.

An American woman of Iraqi heritage tells of watching the bombings on television, seeing if she can recognize any falling in the neighborhoods where her relatives live. A Baghdad doctor despairs at the thought of the increased number of deformed children she delivers and the growing frequency of breast cancer in little girls as young as eleven. Another woman gives us a tour of the Baghdad bomb shelter where she lost most of her family due to the success of two-part bombs especially made to explode deep inside shelters.

Throughout the play, Antje Ellerman's set, Mattie Ullrich's costumes and Peter West's lighting quickly and completely take us to many locales occupied by specifically styled women. They are greatly enhanced by Obadiah Eaves original music and sound design.

Working with director Joanna Settle, Raffo creates a succession of women who are not only of different ages and experiences, but of significantly different body types, accents and degrees of education. Nine Parts of Desire emphasizes that, contrary to popular stereotypes, there are as many different variations on womanhood in Iraq as there are in America.

Photos of Heather Raffo by Joan Marcus

For information visit met.com

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