THE VAGRANT TRILOGY

by Mona Mansour

The Vagrant Trilogy consists of three plays: The Hour of Feeling, The
Vagrant, and Urge for Going. In part one, The Hour of Feeling, (1967)
we meet Adham, a hot young scholar back from university in Cairo,
readying himself to go to London to give a talk. He marries a girl
from the village and takes her with him, and when war breaks out at
home, the two near-strangers must decide what to do. The second
play in the trilogy, The Vagrant, finds Adham and Abir nearly 20 years
later (1982), divorced, him teaching at a humble college in London.
Adham’s hopes for professorship are tested when both “homes”—
England and Palestine—flare up with political violence, and the
compartmentalization he’s built around himself in order to survive
starts to crumble. The third play, Urge for Going, finds a completely
different Adham and Abir, representing a different fork in the road
taken back in 1967. We see them in a modern-day refugee camp in
Lebanon, with a daughter (Jamila) determined to break out of the
endless stasis of her family’s life.

Production Notes

Character List
(2W, 4M)
THE HOUR OF FEELING
ADHAM — Arab, mid 20s, handsome, intense, the big scholar from
the small village
ABIR — Arab, 19, smart, beautiful, unassuming, grounded
BEDER — Arab, late 50s, Adham’s mother, not cuddly
THEO — White, mid 20s, working-class scholar from Northern En-
gland
GEORGE — White, late 20s, upper-class scholar, likes to dazzle the
ladies
DIANA — White, mid 20s, moneyed, Londoner, savvy, sexy
THE VAGRANT
ADHAM — Arab, now in his late 30s, he’s had some wear and tear,
still sexy
BEDER — Arab, late 50s, Adham’s mother, not cuddly
JENKIN — White, 50s, academic, avuncular, loves his “words”
LEAH — White, 50s, tough but frayed at the edges, garrulous, a “sur-
vivor” in this world of academia
COLIN — White, 30s, working class, fellow striving professor at Ad-
ham’s university
ABIR — Arab, now in her mid 30s, sophisticated, grounded
NICK — White, 20s, front-footed, a student at university
FIONA — White, 20s, a bit posh, a student at university
SIDNEY, White, 20s, working class, a student at university
CLERK — any age, an NHS clerk
JAWAD — Arab Brit, 30s, Abir’s fiancé, upper class, amenable
URGE FOR GOING
ADHAM — now in his 60s
ABIR — now in her 60s
HAMZI — Adham’s brother, 60s, the garrulous uncle, the entertainer
JAMILA — Adham and Abir’s daughter, 17, both young and old for
her age
JUL — Jamila’s brother, 23, there’s something off about him
GHASSAN — Abir’s brother, 60s

Author

Mona Mansour

MONA MANSOUR grew up in a Southern California suburb, the daughter of a Lebanese immigrant father and American mother from Seattle. Her earliest obsessions included the kidnapping of heiress Patricia Hearst and the various battles of World War II. Global politics were brought inside when various cousins, uncles and aunties came to live with the family during the Lebanese Civil War. She studied acting as an undergrad, but in her senior year a class in improvisation led her down that path; she then studied at Second City Chicago and was a member of the Groundlings Sunday Company, which gave her a visceral first taste of writing. Her first play was Me and the S.L.A, where she turned a childhood obsession into a solo play about a kidnapped heiress, urban terrorists, and the nature of brainwashing.

Her commitment to theater deepened after a move to New York City in the wake of the...[FULL BIO]

Photo by Leyla Sharabi