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[qnewsau]

Saints of Damour: an exhilarating queer play at Qtopia Sydney

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/saints-of-damour-an-exhilarating-queer-play-at-qtopia-sydney/

Saints of Damour: an exhilarating queer play at Qtopia Sydney

Rita Bratovich reviews a new queer play at Qtopia Sydney’s Loading Dock Theatre.

James Elazzi takes us on a journey across continents, cultures, decades and evolving relationships in this beautifully written, thoroughly engaging new play.

Elazzi is a queer Lebanese-Australian writer who draws inspiration from the people and experiences in his orbit.

His previous plays and short films have received high praise and he has cemented his place as one of Australia’s most talented theatre makers.

Saints of Damour, currently playing Qtopia Sydney’s Loading Dock theatre, is a consummate example of Elazzi’s storytelling prowess.

Spanning three decades, it begins on a farm in the small town of Damour just outside Beirut, Lebanon.

It is the mid-1970s. The Lebanese civil war is looming. Pierre (Antony Makhlouf) and his mother, Zienab (Deborah Galanos) own a farm on which they grow and sell tomatoes, barely eking out a living.

Unbeknown to anyone, Pierre is gay – although it is hinted that there is gossip in the village.

He meets local welder, Samir (Saro Lepejian) and shows him how to remove black stains from his hands using tomato juice.

They fall in love. It is intense, poetic, real.

But Zienab has more conventional plans for her son. She has betrothed him to the daughter of a neighbour to whom her late husband was indebted.

The daughter, Layla (Nicole Chamoun) is very attracted to Pierre and keen for the marriage, though farm life does not appeal to her.

War breaks out. Pierre and Layla hastily marry and flee, with Zienab, to Australia. Samir had been given an airline ticket by Pierre but is waylaid in Beirut.

Layla’s dreams of a happier life in Sydney are crushed when she finds herself instead living on a farm in Goondiwindi, Queensland, with a disgruntled husband and venomous mother-in-law.

They work hard and, despite parochial racism, they prosper and eventually move to Sydney.

Truth has followed them every step of the way, pulling at the loose threads of pretence each has attempted to weave, presenting them with a cold, hard reckoning.

“Saints of Damour” is running until Saturday 5 April. Photo: Emma Elias/supplied.

Elazzi’s script is perfectly paced and beautifully written.

Each character has their own fully-formed trajectory and feels authentic and relatable.

Max Cattana, who plays minor characters in the first act, enters as the very camp, sure-of-himself Todd, Pierre’s lover, in act two, which brings the action into the mid-to-late 1980s.

All the actors are superb and have great chemistry on stage.

Director Anthony Skuse uses the limited space skilfully and draws emotional intensity from the performers without making it melodramatic.

Elazzi’s script, in fact, is filled with lots of laugh-out-loud humour that balances the pathos on stage.

Makhlouf and Lepejian are very convincing as lovers. Makhlouf, whose character has to leave the one and only thing that made him happy, is powerful and moving.

Layla, who could easily become a two-dimensional plot device in the wrong hands, is thankfully in the right hands, both with Elazzi and Chamoun.

Layla moves through naïvety, petulance, despair, rebellion and eventual personal triumph. Chamoun plays her in a way that makes her real and empathetic.

Unequivocally, though, Deborah Galanos stands out.

The seasoned and deservedly acclaimed actor is stunning, playing the overprotective, ambitious, emotionally-wrought mother whose keen maternal instincts clash with her force-of-nature stubbornness.

With very little on stage in the way of props, effects and set, the costumes do a lot of heavy lifting in this production and deserve their own applause.

Unfortunately, the costume designer isn’t specifically credited, but kudos to you.

This is an exceptional production. Be warned – there are audible sniffles towards the end – but Saints of Damour is exhilarating.

Saints of Damour will be performed at the Loading Dock Theatre, Qtopia Sydney, 301 Forbes St, Darlinghurst NSW until Saturday 5 April 2025. Visit qtopiasydney.com.au for tickets and further information.

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