By Makram Ayache
An In Arms Theatre and MENA Collective production
in association with Factory Theatre and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
In the Buddies in Bad Times Chamber Space
Beirut, 1978 / Beirut, 2018 / beyond space and time
Memory is a funny thing, so quiet if left undisturbed.
Two love stories twist together in two Beiruts riven by time and conflict. In 1978, two women share spit on the ends of cigarettes and yearn for tenderness under the tumult of war. In 2018, a foreigner and a local flirt over vodka sodas as their contradictions collect like condensation on the sides of their glasses. Poetic realism braids past and present into the green line of vegetation that bisected the concrete of Lebanon’s capital during the civil war. The Green Line, named a finalist for the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award, unearths queer history that has always been there, whether our ancestors wanted it to be inherited or erased.
Image Design by Awake Studio
Partner Companies
In Arms Theatre Company is a creative studio for art born from rupture. Dedicated to bold, heart-led theatre that centres the margins, holds space for care, and imagines spiritual and political transformation through resistance.
Established in 1979, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is Toronto’s leading destination for artistically rigorous alternative theatre and a world leader in developing queer voices and stories for the stage. Buddies offers a year-round program that includes a full season of queer theatre, new works festivals, artist residencies, and intergenerational training and education initiatives. In its 47-year history Buddies has welcomed over one million people into its home in the heart of Toronto’s queer village and has premiered over 1,000 new works for the stage, making it the largest and longest-running queer theatre company in the world.
Cast + Creative Team
Kit Norman
Associate Lighting Designer
