Over the past few years, no Iraqi theatre experience has attracted as much attention and stirred as much controversy as that of director Muhaned Al Hadi. His experience forms an important twist in the more recent journey of Iraqi theatre, which had been afflicted by flaccidity and repetition in its themes and methods of expression. What the wars had etched into the collective memory of the Iraqi individual meant that most theatre productions were characterised by blood in the realest sense of the word: memories of war, violent, harsh language and visuals. The soldier was a common element of most plays, the theme of war reflected in the linguistic discourse. And so it was that Muhaned Al Hadi became influenced by experiences he received outside Iraq. In 2002 he traveled to Beirut, still an actor at the time, where he grappled with Lebanese theatre. After attending several intense workshops, he started working as a director in Beirut and co-directed a play there with Lebanese director, Pauline Haddad. After the fall of the Ba‘ath regime, Muhaned returned to Iraq hoping for a change in terms of presentation within Iraqi theatre, but he was to be disappointed. Iraqi theatre-makers continued to...