Scenario of love

Based on a text by Dr. Awaatif Naaim, Belgian director Hassan Khayoon is collaborating with Swedish actors Riyam Al Jazairi and Alaa Rashid on a play about the love and sorrow of a housewife and a soldier as they try to make sense of their lives during the war.

Their movements, their thoughts, their voices—all permeated by the word “war”—give that word meaning, even when they don’t intend to. And ultimately, “war” devalues their own meaning. She and he in a house full of events and memories. Everything in the house has been destroyed except for the bed and a few photographs hanging on the wall. It is fall, and sadness fills the air. Light creeps in cautiously, though it’s unclear from where. She stands amid a pile of clothes and broken old furniture. He packs a military uniform into a suitcase and prepares to leave.

*Scenario of Love* is a play about love and sorrow in times of war. A soldier is about to leave the army and flee to unknown destinations. He does so out of love for his homeland. In doing so, like many Iraqi soldiers, he resists the hold that his country’s political leaders have over him. In their country, love for the homeland is reduced to love for the leader. But the sacrifice he must make is no small one. He leaves his beloved behind. Yet she cannot understand that her husband’s love for his homeland takes precedence over his love for her. *Scenario of Love* tells the story of the painful choices many Iraqis have had to make as a result of the many wars in their country. A story in which desertion becomes a patriotic act and fleeing an act of bravery.