Overview
THE VAGRANT TRILOGY consists of three plays: The Hour of Feeling, The Vagrant, and Urge for Going. In part one, The Hour of Feeling, (1967) we meet Adham, a hot young scholar back from university in Cairo, readying himself to go to London to give a talk. He marries a girl from the village and takes her with him, and when war breaks out at home, the two near-strangers must decide what to do. The second play in the trilogy, The Vagrant, finds Adham and Abir nearly 20 years later (1982), divorced, him teaching at a humble college in London. Adham’s hopes for professorship are tested when both “homes”—England and Palestine—flare up with political violence, and the compartmentalization he’s built around himself in order to survive starts to crumble. The third play, Urge for Going, finds a completely different Adham and Abir, representing a different fork in the road taken back in 1967. We see them in a modern-day refugee camp in Lebanon, with a daughter (Jamila) determined to break out of the endless stasis of her family’s life.
Casting & Production
Casting
THE HOUR OF FEELING
ADHAM — Arab, mid 20s, handsome, intense, the big scholar from the small village
ABIR — Arab, 19, smart, beautiful, unassuming, grounded
BEDER — Arab, late 50s, Adham’s mother, not cuddly
THEO — White, mid 20s, working-class scholar from Northern England
GEORGE — White, late 20s, upper-class scholar, likes to dazzle the ladies
DIANA — White, mid 20s, moneyed, Londoner, savvy, sexy
THE VAGRANT
ADHAM — Arab, now in his late 30s, he’s had some wear and tear, still sexy
BEDER — Arab, late 50s, Adham’s mother, not cuddly
JENKIN — White, 50s, academic, avuncular, loves his “words”
LEAH — White, 50s, tough but frayed at the edges, garrulous, a “survivor” in this world of academia
COLIN — White, 30s, working class, fellow striving professor at Adham’s university
ABIR — Arab, now in her mid 30s, sophisticated, grounded
NICK — White, 20s, front-footed, a student at university
FIONA — White, 20s, a bit posh, a student at university
SIDNEY, White, 20s, working class, a student at university
CLERK — any age, an NHS clerk
JAWAD — Arab Brit, 30s, Abir’s fiancé, upper class, amenable
URGE FOR GOING
ADHAM — now in his 60s
ABIR — now in her 60s
HAMZI — Adham’s brother, 60s, the garrulous uncle, the entertainer
JAMILA — Adham and Abir’s daughter, 17, both young and old for her age
JUL — Jamila’s brother, 23, there’s something off about him
GHASSAN — Abir’s brother, 60s
Note on Casting:
The trilogy can be done with four men (late 20s to 50s) and two women (same), and all the cast preferably is Middle Eastern. Thus, the Middle Eastern actors will play white British characters. This also means the casting can be flexible—everyone will invariably play older and younger than they actually are.
Reviews
“Mansour’s rich trilogy about a displaced Palestinian family is captivating, and for all the protean theatricality of Mark Wing-Davey’s gorgeous production, watching it feels somehow like being engrossed in a novel, with that same luxuriant sense of immersion and transport.”
—The New York Times
“A work of complex ideas and deep emotion laced with droll humor, the play presents two possible outcomes to a crisis of displacement. While advancing briskly through its three-and-a-half-hour playing time, The Vagrant Trilogy gracefully probes the meaning of home, the function of literature, and the inexorable impact of grand historical forces on the smallest details of our personal lives. Richly intertextual, it portrays a range of characters with clashing views, each fully delineated.”
—The Nation
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