Bizzie Frost Saudi Gazette It takes outstanding talent to be able to carry off a “one man show”, let alone write it and direct it yourself. With this entertaining social satire, Dr. Maisah Sobaihi has done all three, and it is commendable that she perseveres in bringing her show to an audience otherwise starved of live entertainment. Sobaihi has performed her show “Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia” about five times in Jeddah, and this is the third time I have seen it. I confess I was slightly sceptical about seeing it again because when I saw it the second time, I was a little disappointed that she had not included more new material. However, this summer Sobaihi performed her show at the Midtown Festival in New York, her second performance in the city, away from the comfort of a very supportive Jeddah audience. I was interested to see how, through this experience, she might have developed her stage characters as well as her own performance. As the curtain opens, the sight is impressive with the familiar painted mural of Old Jeddah. Sobaihi has three different sets on stage, and she begins in the central one. She wears jeans, a deep-red top, a sheer black abaya with red embroidery, and a black and red headscarf. Despite the passing years, she never looks older – poised and confident Sobaihi begins to engage with her audience. After a brief introduction, Sobaihi draws us into the life of Maryam, who is married and has a couple of children. Maryam comes from a wealthy family and is used to life's luxuries but it is a shock for her when she hears rumours that her husband has taken a second wife. (In New York, members of her audience later told Sobaihi that they thought Saudi women were generally happy with their husbands taking more than one wife.) When Maryam finally hears the truth directly from her husband (who she speaks to as though he is on the stage with her), she is told that he feels it is his “social responsibility” to marry one of the many divorcees in the community, highlighting the rising divorce rates in Saudi Arabia. Sobaihi uses Maryam's tirade against him to highlight other social responsibilities in the country that he could have got involved with instead, such as catching the rats, or cleaning up the litter on Corniche because Saudis don't like cleaning up after themselves, drug abuse, suicides, women's refuges. The play more or less revolves around Sobaihi's personal experiences. She takes a break before introducing us to her next character, Layla. Through Layla's character, Sobaihi wants to tell us that when she got divorced how her divorced friends had tried to get her interested in a “Misyar” marriage. She also tells the audience about the new craze for “Mesyaf” or “summer marriages”, however she was not interested in any of these options and was waiting for true love to come her way. At this point, she bursts into the song “You can't Hurry Love” and encourages the audience to join in the chorus with her. Sobaihi then becomes Layla –– a hyper, talkative and instantly likeable character. Layla is unconventional, smokes cigarettes and hookahs and advises her divorced friend, Maryam, to “smoke to cope”. She thinks that waiting for a Saudi Prince to come riding by on his horse is a complete waste of time and that women over 25 are “Halas!” –– they are fishes and old maids. Layla has children and surprisingly for this off-beat character, a job. Sobaihi briefly mentions these facts. In an era where a large number of women comprise the workforce and strive toward building careers, I feel more could have said, as Sobaihi herself works as an Assistant Professor at the King Abdulaziz University, where she is surrounded by young women with career aspirations. Meanwhile, Layla has not lived with a man for seven years and misses the physical aspects of married life, announcing that she wants a Misyar marriage. She flippantly describes it as a “part time job”. Both Sobaihi's characters frequently have manic outbursts in Arabic which add to the comedy and overall flavour of the production. We learn that marriage is a hot topic of discussion in Saudi Arabia, probably out of boredom for lack of other sources of entertainment. Although years ago, there were cinemas and drive-in cinemas in the Kingdom. Gossip is another hot topic and Sobaihi tells us that “in Saudi Society people make sure you know what you don't want to know”, especially in matters such as husbands taking second wives. Sobaihi then switches back to Layla's life. Layla has fallen into the trap of a Misyar marriage with a rich married man: she has had a wildly frivolous time on her honeymoon in Paris. “Well, actually it was just a honey-day!” Layla says. Layla has given up her independence and job, so that she can be available whenever he calls. She is loveable and probably gets the most laughs, because her life is a rollercoaster of life's dramas, and she chatters her way exuberantly through them. Sobaihi gets under the skin of the characters she plays, and they come across as real people. Apart from being very funny they are vehicles of social messages. After the show, several women were discussing the scene where Sobaihi talked about Saudi women and the high turnover of their drivers, and the language barriers. Raising the issue that they frequently resort to hiring expatriates of whom they have very little knowledge – except for seeing their Iqamas and driving licences – Sobaihi begs the question as to which is the safer option: to allow women to drive themselves, or to allow a succession of unknowns to drive them and their children around town. After her performance, Sobaihi held an informal question and answer session. One young woman said: “It was a wonderful one-woman show, and very funny. But the topics referred to were very sad, it really hurts to see the reality of our life.” Another commented: “It was a different experience – it is the first time we have been to anything (entertainment) in Saudi Arabia – we enjoyed it.” Sobaihi assured me that she is not standing still with her show. “Of course, I look forward to starting a completely new play, I have many ideas simmering in my mind. However, we keep producing this show because we want to expose it more. There are many that have not seen it yet, and for the first time we are producing it in Arabic.” As a full-blooded Saudi, it is an irony that Sobaihi has, up until now, only performed in English. For the first time, there will be three performances in Arabic on October 11, 14 and 16, and an English version of the play will be held on October 17 at Effat University. For more information and tickets, visit her website, www.maisahsobaihi.com.
