World Premiere CO-PRODUCED BY SFBATCO AND GOLDEN THREAD PRODUCTIONS
“Arab Spring is an American play for the grown-up kids of immigrants, for those caught between culture and tradition, identity and community, torn between expectation and free will.”
“The title, inspired by the uprisings in the Middle East, started to shift for me from solely a political idea to a personal one: how does a revolution play out in family? At its core, Arab Spring is a love letter to anyone with a complicated family.”
When Yusef, a recovering addict, and Dina, his fiercely controlling older sister, reunite at their suburban childhood home on the 4th of July, it’s not for fireworks or family nostalgia — it’s to bury their estranged, deadbeat father before his body goes cold. What begins as a race against time to carry out an Islamic burial quickly unravels into a sharp, darkly funny reckoning with grief, resentment, and the messy truths families try to bury along with the dead. As old wounds resurface and long-held secrets emerge, the siblings must confront who their father really was — and who they are to each other now.
Blending biting humor with raw emotional honesty, Arab Spring crafts a fearless exploration of loss, faith, and the complicated bonds that refuse to break, no matter how hard we try. This world premiere asks: when everything falls apart, what does forgiveness look like — and can family survive the truth? Inshallah.