written by Alyssa Cokinis
Better late than never to talk about this beautiful show I saw in spring 2025!
On Sunday, March 2nd, I drove to A-WOL Dance Collective in Portland to see the U.S. premiere touring to Boom Arts for the weekend of Cosmos / Awalem ‘عوالم’.
Awalem ‘عوالم’ is a solo show with some interactive elements conceived by the performer, Ashtar Muallem, and Clément Dazin and translated from French to Arabic with development done by Ashtar Muallem and Emile Saba of ASHTAR Theatre in Ramallah, Palestine. The version I saw was the Arabic one with English surtitles, though Muallem often spoke in English interludes to us in the audience that matched the surtitles.
Boom Arts is a new favorite Portland theatre of mine, after I saw Jogging by Hanane Hajj Ali in October 2023 (another fantastic solo show by an Arab theatre artist). They consistently bring in fantastic work that enriches the Portland theatre community.
What made Awalem ‘عوالم’ so enticing from the beginning was the simplicity of the stage. Walking in, I saw the silks that Muallem eventually climbed and performed on. She sat in the middle of the silks, taking the audience in and preparing for the one-hour show ahead.
When the show began, Muallem began her physical exercises to prep for her silk dance, which included using an exercise band. She spoke of her experiences growing up in Palestine, her exercise work, and her relationship to her grandmother and religion. While we witnessed her physical flexibility, we also heard about how she navigated life as a Palestinian in Palestine under Israeli occupation and her move to France. Each precise movement was matched perfectly with the energy of what she spoke about.
While there were serious topics of leaving family and homeland behind, there was also a lot of humor. Muallem fully leaned in to the dichotomies of her life by weaving together comedy with her inclination to tarot readings, asking an audience member up onstage to cut an onion while she danced on silks, and smoking a cigarette at the top of the silks as though on a balcony in her Paris apartment. All of these intricate acting choices lend itself to a refreshing and interconnected performance.
While we as the audience could not relate to every personal experience, Muallem balanced sharing her story while bringing the audience together to witness and participate in it.
Overall, Cosmos / Awalem ‘عوالم’ was a fantastic one-person show that brought a full house together to witness new Palestinian theatre-making and stories for the stage. It is a great reminder to us that each person’s story holds a multitude, in all its light and dark moments, and is worth telling.
Support independent theatre like Boom Arts in the wake of U.S. federal budget cuts to arts organizations. There are both sponsorship opportunities and tax-deductible donations you can give. The U.S. deserves a vital, thriving arts scene that brings international voices here, like what Boom Arts provides for Portland.
Alyssa Cokinis is a writer and theatre artist from Iowa, currently living in the Pacific Northwest. She is also the founder and editor of some scripts. alyssacokinis.com
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