"The Petrol Station": A New Play by Sulayman Al Bassam

Monday, November 16

Time: 6:30pm 

Location: Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre, 1 Washington Place, The Gallatin School for Individualised Study, New York University

Internationally acclaimed writer and director Sulayman Al Bassam presents a semi-staged performance of a new play. This work-in-progress is the outcome of an Artistic Residency of the Gallatin Global Faculty Programme, Gallatin School, NYU.

A desert. A border. A remote petrol station, within earshot of civil war. Currency of exchange: smuggled petrol; refugees fleeing a warzone. This vividly imagined twilit zone provides the background for a familial huis clos of tragic intensity in which the crimes, secrets and broken loves of one generation make violent claims on the lives of the next. Drawing inspiration from Sumerian myth,Palestinian refugee literature; American 1950s urban legends of the Gas Station; Al Bassam's poetic and disturbing new play portrays a modern dystopia where defunct ideologies, desperate migrants, zealous warlords and opportunistic traffickers vie for supremacy, legitimising narratives and the unattainable body of a woman.

This event is sponsored by the Gallatin School for Individualised Study at New York University.