‘Saints of Damour’: An Essential Play About Love, Loss And Identity

A tragic tale of a forbidden love that spans both continents and decades, Saints of Damour is an enrapturing new work written by James Elazzi playing at Qtopia Sydney. Elazzi explores a number of hefty themes – queer love, immigration during wartime, the rise of HIV/AIDs – with a deft pen, all assisted by a spectacular cast and crew that make the show absolutely superb.

Saints of Damour follows the life of Pierre (Antony Makhlouf), a farmer barely making a living with his mother in 1970s Lebanon on the cusp of civil war. In the town of Damour he falls deeply in love with Samir (Saro Lepejian), but must soon move to Australia in an arranged marriage and leave his true love behind.

In both rural Queensland and the bustling streets of 1980s Darlinghurst, Samir constantly haunts Pierre’s life as he attempts to balance who he truly is with who his family want him to be.

The play feels deeply personal for Elazzi, a queer Lebanese man himself, as it takes inspiration from the experiences of himself and his communities. This makes Saints of Damour regularly quite upsetting, but it’s not all bleak. Elazzi’s script has plenty of levity throughout, and encapsulates the myriad feelings that come with a sense of fractured identity.

A phenomenally written play

Saints of Damour also achieves this through the phenomenally realised character of Pierre. He’s a man torn between multiple identities even before leaving Lebanon, and becoming a stranger in a foreign land further exacerbates this struggle. Despite having family nearby and later the cold comfort of a stranger’s arms, he still feels quite alone to reckon with his sense of self.

Antony Makhlouf’s performance as Pierre captures the character’s internal dichotomy perfectly, with Makhlouf portraying this struggle simply in the way that he carries himself. There are very few moments where it feels like we see the true Pierre, making those times feel all the more poignant and often upsetting.

The wider cast of Saints of Damour is similarly excellent. Samir is portrayed by Saro Lepejian, who brings a real sense of life to the show in its opening act that only remains in Pierre’s memories. Given Samir’s absence from Pierre’s life is one of the main plot points, it takes a talented actor like Lepejian to convey exactly what made Pierre fall for this man in the first place.

Veteran actress Deborah Galanos is terrific as Pierre’s stern but vivacious mother Zienab, who moves to Australia with the son that she knows more about than she lets on. Nicole Chamoun is Layla, Pierre’s wife, who loves him but comes to know that her husband is simply unable to love her back. Galanos and Chamoun are both spectacular here, with the scenes they share being some of the best in the show. I’d also like to shout out Max Cattana, who wonderfully plays a number of smaller roles that are still indispensable to the show’s function.

Saints of Damour is brilliant

It’s also a testament to Anthony Skuse’s direction and the collaboration between James Smithers’ production and Sam Wylie’s lighting that Saints of Damour manages to tell this tale multi-continental, decade-spanning story with little in the way of props or flashy set design. With basically just a rolling wooden platform, creative lighting and a lot of tomatoes (plus their juices!), the production convincingly portrays all these different eras and keeps the story moving with incredible efficiency.

The result is an utterly essential play in Saints of Damour. James Elazzi’s play is rooted in a rich sense of history that tackles heavy subjects in a way that provokes both tears of joy and misery, assisted by a phenomenal troupe of actors that bring this tale to life in Qtopia’s Loading Dock Theatre. Don’t miss this fantastic show in its debut season, and don’t forget to bring a few tissues.

Saints of Damour is playing at Qtopia until Sunday April 6th. Book tickets here.