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By I, Aziz1005, CC BY-SA 2.5
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[Lights. Everyone on stage is newly dead, burnt crispy, bloody, or simply gone, and awkwardly posed, including HERO. Hero opens her eyes.] HERO Saddam Hussein lasted 24 years. He hated Basra, the city I was born in. He used to say, "Basra is the bride of the gulf, but she's a peasant; peasant brides deserve three days of nice treatment, and then chase them to the fields." By the year 2016 it has been thirteen years since the invasion of Iraq removed Saddam Hussein from power. [Hero sits up.] HERO Despite the violence of this period, we are not all dead. [Everyone gets up and starts cleaning off the blood and filth.][A woman studies law. A man goes shopping. Two young people play draughts. Two young militiamen setup an 82mm mortar.] HERO In 1987, we had a population of perhaps 400,000. Now, despite all of the thirst, the starvation, the hate, and the death that has transpired in the intervening years... [The two young militiamen launch a mortar round.] HERO ...we number more than one million people. It was not a magic trick. We just kept having sex and kept having babies. [The militiamen launch a second mortar round.] HERO I imagine that if you've got a little one to hold, you can keep eating and drinking whatever life puts in front of you. [The militiamen men launch a third mortar round.] HERO The story, this time, begins in 2007. When the British military abandoned my city, Basra, to the militias.... |
