The Medieval World Drama Working Group (MWDRG), a Jackman Humanities Institute Working Group run in conjunction with PLS, usually takes form as a monthly gathering of academics, performers, students, and friends in Toronto who want to expand our knowledge of premodern drama by cold-reading English translations of non-English plays from before the year 1550 (preferably before 1500):

COMING FRI MAY 31 (7PM) AND

SAT JUNE 1 (5PM, after Q&A at 2:30PM):

THE INFATUATED AND THE RAVISHING

a workshop reading* of Muḥammad ibn Dāniyāl’s raunchy, shocking, queer shadow play from 13th/14th-century Cairo in a new translation into English by Prof. Li Guo (U Notre Dame) set into rhyme and rhythmic dialogue by Prof. Matthew Sergi (U Toronto) presented by PLS and the Jackman Humanities Institute’s Medieval World Drama Working Group

“… a mess of men were pressing at the door, his / shirt already stripped off, awfully gorgeous / surrounded by the staring eyes of tourists / another knockout! he for sure hits one-fifty / perfect score, his win wholly, and the gamblers’ / and the fans’, who’d been adding holy blessings (‘Yasin! Taha!’) to their cheers, alms / tossed right on his arms, gold dinars, silver dirhams / collecting on his shoulders and here he comes / closer to me in the dark, his shining face, this — moon / my lunatic heart abducted, as soon as I saw him / my mind aswoon, awestruck, vexed / on the spot I came up with the song I’ll sing next…”

The Infatuated and the Ravishing (al-Mutayyam wal-̣Dā’i‘ al-Yutayyim), composed by Muḥammad Ibn Dāniyāl (c. 1249-1310), is an Arabic shadow play written across multiple verse forms, connected by dialogue in rhythmic, rhyming prose. It centers on “The Infatuated,” a middle-aged man from Mosul who has fallen in love – or, often, into predatory lust – with a much younger Cairene man, “The Ravishing.”

The play takes queer erotics as its given circumstance and, in language that alternates between the subtly beautiful and the shockingly graphic, directly addresses (and often makes flippant jokes of) unsettling, disturbing, and very sensitive topics and content.

(*At a workshop reading, expect a lightly rehearsed early showing of a new/developing play text, before full production has begun — actors hold the scripts in their hands, with minimal movement and production elements, often revealing the text to a public audience for the first time.)

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

FRIDAY MAY 31, 7:00PM | SATURDAY JUNE 1, 5:00PM

with a discussion and Q&A featuring Guo and Sergi on Saturday June 1, 2:30pm

at the Jackman Humanities Building, Room 100

170 St George St., Floor 1

Toronto, ON, M5R 2M8

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Illustration: Painting of Shah Abbas I and Page. © 1627 Muhammad Qasim.