University of Waterloo presents

Readers who are on the University of Waterloo alumni list might have got the email about a special showing tonight of the Arab Israeli Cookbook for UW alumni. I decided to check it out, with fellow UW alumnus Salman, even though when it's this close to exams I should be spending more time at books than at the theatre.

The play itself wasn't bad. Creative, to say the least - the actors actually prepared and ate food as they delivered their lines. The story telling for the most part was effective, although I did feel that it lacked authenticity at some points. No fault of the actors of course, but it takes a bit of imagination to see a white lady who says mahshi kusa (stuffed zucchini) in a perfectly anglicized way as a traditional Palestinian woman. Overall, I think I connected more with the Jewish/Israeli perspectives of it than the Arab ones. Great effort nevertheless.

I ran into some old Waterloo folks that I hadn't seen in a while (and didn't think I would ever). And it turns out, something I didn't know before even though I'd heard of the play, that the people behind the Canadian production, Studio 180, are UW fine arts grads. Their mission is 'to bring compelling, unique and socially significant drama – preferably unknown to Canadian audiences – to the stage', and they named their company after room 180 in Hagey Hall - apparently it's an obscure, windowless room in the old Arts fortress. I don't think I've ever been in it. Besides, there's lots of obscure, windowless rooms all over the Waterloo campus, such as my old office in the Davis Centre that I mostly used as a storage room or as a place to get a quick nap every once in a while. Maybe I'll start a company some day and call it DC 2580. Or maybe not.