Cover photo by Carol Rosegg

Roar

Betty Shamieh

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Description

A play about love, sex, ambition, and the Arab American experience, ROAR is the story of a Palestinian American family living in Detroit in the wake of the first Gulf War. Karema and Ahmed Yacoub work long hours in their liquor store while their teenage daughter, Irene, relentlessly pursues a career as a pop star. All hell breaks loose when a notoriously sexy and scandalous relative, Hala, gets thrown out of Kuwait and arrives on the doorstep without a return ticket.

Production Info

Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male)
Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
Reviews

Press Quotes

“ROAR is part tender drama and part searing comedy. The young writer Betty Shamieh has the playwright’s most essential gift: the passion for talk. Ms Shamieh’s rich, urgent prose will catch you up, then fling you into a character’s life as if it were your own. In ROAR, we meet two generations of Palestinian-Americans living in Detroit during the first Gulf War. Don’t expect the grim worthiness of a ‘problem play’; expect unpredictable events, relationships, and humor.” —Margo Jefferson, The New York Times

“The words of this play first hum, then sing and ultimately roar into your consciousness and soul.” —Theater Scene

“ROAR opened Off-Broadway and made an immediate impact. It deals with a family of outsiders who, like the Younger family in A RAISIN IN THE SUN, are also struggling with the concept of assimilation — but this family of uprooted Palestinians sees the world in a considerably different and far more complex way. Although it deals largely with the Palestinian experience, ROAR is fundamentally about the American dream.” —Theater Mania

“ROAR is not at all the lightweight issue-oriented play it first appears, but rather a layered, family-oriented tragic drama in the tradition of THE GLASS MENAGERIE or LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT. If Shamieh’s not quite ready to stake her claim as not only one of the best and most important playwrights of her generation but as a dramatist as significant in her way as Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill were in theirs, ROAR certainly suggests the day that will happen is not far off.” —Talkin’ Broadway

“ROAR isn’t just the story of Palestinian-Americans living in Detroit: it’s an unsentimental look at family life in all its frustrating complexity.” —Associated Press

About the Author

Author

  • Betty Shamieh

    Betty Shamieh is the author of fifteen plays and the Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at the Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH). Her comedy, MALVOLIO, premiered in the Uptown Shakespeare in the Park at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheatre and was a New York Times Critic's Pick. Winner of the 2023 New York Shakespeare Award for Best Comedy, MALVOLIO was nominated for ten AUDELCO Awards, including Best Play. A graduate of Harvard College and the Yale School of Drama, Shamieh was named a UNESCO Young Artist for Intercultural Dialogue, Harvard University Clifton Visiting Artist, a Denning Visiting Artist at Stanford, and Radcliffe Playwriting Fellow. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Drama in 2016. Her dramedy, ROAR, premiered off-Broadway at the New Group and was named a New York Times Critic's Pick. Her other theatre productions include: THE BLACK EYED (New York Theatre Workshop & The Magic Theatre), FIT FOR A QUEEN (Classical Theatre of Harlem), THE MACHINE (Naked Angels), THE STRANGEST (The Semitic Root), and TERRITORIES (EU Capital of Culture Festival & The Magic Theatre). Shamieh wrote and co-starred in her play of monologues, CHOCOLATE IN HEAT, in two extended Off-Off-Broadway runs and over twenty university theatres. Her works have been translated into seven languages. Her debut novel, Too Soon, will be published by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, in 2025. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook @bettyshamieh.

About the Book

Book Information

Publisher BPPI
Publication Date 1/30/2005
Pages 80
ISBN 9780881452556

Special Notes

Special Notes

Licensees are required to include the original stage producers credits in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:

Originally produced by The New Group, New York

The following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
Roar is produced
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com