Customer Reviews

Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire: A Play

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I saw the play performed. It was beautiful. It captures the complexities of being an Arab woman in a time of war. The women are quite familiar and real. It's really amazing how Heather Raffo was able to portray entirely different sides, perspective and ideas that we don't see anywhere else. And yet all of them exist, and many people are struggling with these contradictions and the questions that come out of them.

This play is one of the most tragic, poignant, and beautiful pieces of art I have ever experienced.

Beautiful writing, interesting women, important... timely. Also nice to see production photos.

I saw Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire performed at Berkeley Repertory Theatre (CA) in 2006 and found it so moving and insightful that it stays fresh in my mind even four years later. The play moves back and forth between the experiences of different Iraqi women, revealing the challenges and joys of their lives both before and during the war, and the uniqueness and the universality of their experiences are strikingly layered. The war is key to their stories, but not the only factor as the richness of their lives, and concerns beyond the war are also revealed. I bought the book after I saw the play (which I rarely do after seeing plays I enjoyed - this one I found exceptional!).