BY ANNE COLEMAN

In print | Published March 5, 2009 — Updated March 06, 2009 20:41

Correction Appended

Wajdi Mouawad’s play “Scorched,” playing now through March 29 at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, is aptly named, though the quality of the play itself is anything but parched. Viewing it is a deeply satisfying and rewarding experience, driven by a fiercely anti-war message. Filled with poignant and painful poetry, it is an arresting story about learning to cope with history by shattering the silence of generations past.

A Lebanese Quebecois, Mouawad weaves his own fascinating personal history into the play’s intricate quilt of a story, but he avoids any specific regional or political affiliations. The war is always “from the South” or a character lives in “the North.” The characters may have Middle Eastern names, but it is impossible to determine their nationality or faith.

Blanka Zizka, co-artistic director of the Wilma Theater, stages “Scorched” with a lightness of touch and weighty directorial presence that enhances Mouawad’s efforts to avoid specificity. Zizka and set designer Ola Maslik have created a world liberated from limitations of nations and politics. Their stage is a venue for the pursuit and realization of truth and justice. Each character is being tested, tried by the jury of the audience and history, for their involvement in a world of lies and secrets. The story unfolds just as a trial would, jumping throughout time to piece together a portrait of an obscured reality.

But the play is not a simple quest for justice. The play has moments of joy and beauty. Love abounds in the lives of these troubled souls, from the forbidden romance of two young people to the desperate love of a mother and the fierce loyality of two friends.

While not the most important relationship in the play, the friendship of Nawal (Jacqueline Antaramian, who plays Nawal [between the ages of 40 and 45]) and Sawda (Jolly Abraham) is what ultimately makes the Wilma’s production so successful. Antaramian and Abraham have such a powerful bond when they share the stage that their connection seems more genuine than anything outside the theater. Their interactions alone are the stuff of award winning performances; still, the rest of the cast manages to live up to these powerful actresses.

As Janine and Simon, Leila Buck and Ariel Shafir join so completely in the moment when their characters discover the truth that the actors may as well be twins. Different as they can be, the two are inextricably linked by blood and tragedy and, from the moment of discovery on, they share every agonized breath.

The authenticity of Mouawad’s story is so profound that the actors seem to be transformed by more than their individual roles; they are altered by the shared experience of living in these characters and are undoubtedly creating career-defining performances. The powerful humanity of each character and the subtle gradations of each performance make a painful and troubling story an emotionally rewarding experience.

Together in the brief moment before life and war finally manage to separate them, Nawal and Sawda recite the poem “El Atlal” meaning “The Ruins,” and it does not take a translator to know what they are saying. They know that they hold no sway over the future and resign themselves to what fate has in store, but they join together to acknowledge that their love cannot be changed by the passage of time. No amount of pain or cruelty can undermine the sweet intensity of moments like these, and their presence in the play serves as a reminder of the true motivation for pacifism, love.

Mouawad is a master storyteller, and as presented at the Wilma, “Scorched” is a gratifying reflection on the human condition and the many definitions of love.

Correction: March 6, 2009

Correction: This article was incorrectly edited to imply that Janine (Leila Buck) and Simon (Ariel Shafir) discover that they may be twins over the course of “Scorched.” Janine and Simon actually are twins, and the author intended to imply that their respective actors Buck and Shafir have such complementary performances to one another that they may as well be twins.

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