Adventures of Ali & Ali and the aXes of Evil: A Divertimento for Warlords

Description

In this elaborate agitprop theatrical collaboration, the internal contradictions and duplicitous double-speak of the "war on terror" are exposed as the propaganda vehicles for the neo-colonialism of the West that they are. "Ali Hakim" and "Ali Ababwa," refugees from the imaginary country "Agraba," attempt to seduce their audience into providing them with food, refuge, security, freedom and the material benefits of Western consumer society, failing miserably at every step. A hard-hitting presentation of a play-within-a-play assaults the audience as Youssef, Verdecchia and Chai do Shakespeare, Shaw and Swift one better with an endless string of buffooneries and absurdities derived from an inversion of the cliches defining the geo-politics of the Middle-East at the beginning of the 21st century.

Marcus Youssef is the associate artistic producer of Vancouver's NeWorld Theatre and a regular contributor to numerous programs on the CBC network and magazines and journals across Canada. Writer, director and actor Guillermo Verdecchia is the recipient of the Governor General's Award for Drama and numerous other theater awards.

" The Adventures of Ali & Ali ... is solid and polished ... shockingly poignant, seriously funny, humbly powerful, intelligently goofy ..." -- Seattle Post-Intelligencer