Packed tight into a small stage, it is clear that some thick accents and some bold characters can go a long way. The Public Theater’s Urge For Going (written by Mona Mansour and directed by Hal Brooks) travels through a young girl’s life in a small kitchen, where she is crammed between one too many family members, and the urge to escape.
The story takes place in a refugee camp in Palestine, and the set does the story justice. The stage is set up as a small kitchen with a television that only has access to a few channels, and holes that run down the walls.
The main character we are introduced to is Jamila, who is clearly living in the wrong place at the wrong time. The people she depends on for support can hardly give her anything she needs. Her father who is her only role model, is hardly responsive. We see throughout the play, she becomes more independent and becomes the family’s support overall. This is because she knows that once she leaves her home, she will have opportunities to do things that no one in the family has ever dreamed of.
The characters’ relationships are clearly strong. The acting itself is not only realistic but in many aspects is relatable. The pressures of growing up in an area that you want to escape from can be found in many different aspects of each characters’ life as well. Each characters’ emotions and acting are shown in many different ways, specifically through the monologues each character gives about their family and country’s history. The way this is tied into the story makes the play ten times more interesting.
The use of the different parts of the stage just to incorporate different monologues and dialogues for each characters personal story, makes the overall plot become more engaging for the audience.
Moreover, the story itself is brilliant and the actors certainly should be proud of their work, because Urge for Going, is worth going to see.
1 Comment
Hello. Nice article, but I think the family were Palestinian refugees stuck in Lebanon, unable to return or waiting to return to Palestine. They were not in a refugee camp in Palestine. Thanks. :-)
Leave A Comment