Review: In ‘Rosette’ at Mixed Blood Theatre, a Palestinian teen adds a new voice to the American stage

Bright and ambitious teen Rosette likes to climb trees and to read novels from her airy perch. She wants to ride a bicycle and to be able to wear pants, not to mention her big dream of going to the university to study to become a doctor.

But she’s a Palestinian high school student living in Haifa in 1966. And there are barriers, in the world and at home, to the dreams she has for herself. For starters, her conservative parents have ideas about how her life should go.

How will any of her dreams help her find a husband, mother Ida frets. Besides, Ida adds, she doesn’t want her independent-minded daughter smelling like a goat.

A new play by William Nour, “Rosette” is up in a neat premiere by New Arab American Theater Works at Mixed Blood Theatre. The production is noteworthy not for its dramaturgy or acting, even though both are relatively earnest and heartfelt. “Rosette” brings new voices and perspectives to the American stage.

The personages in this one-act play include the title character (Laila Sahir), her Christian parents Ida (Claudia Garcia) and Yusef (Ahmed Elewa) and their Muslim best friends Jameel (Amir Shareef) and Maryam (Hanen Bouchrit).

The two families are close but pull apart because of religious differences after Ida finds a letter that Rosette received from her childhood friend Omar (Leor Benjamin), who also is Jameel and Maryam’s son. Ida frets it could lead to a marriage and has fears about an interfaith union.

“Rosette” is suffused with historical and cultural references to food and family, all punctuated by enchanting music. Nor is it all strait-laced. When Ida and Maryam show Rosette how to prepare kousa, or stuffed squash, for example, they make it a wittily suggestive welcome into adulthood.

The play’s title nods to the floral design on ribbons given out for awards, and to the protective formation that plants grow to overwinter. Both metaphors are implicit in a work about a family displaced from its home in 1948 and seeking better lives.

Director Taous Khazem does a good job of molding this ensemble of players, some with little or no experience, into something resembling a whole. Elewa, a scientist making his debut as an actor, is a natural as Rosette’s dad. He brings calm, empathy and light to the role.

Bouchrit’s performance feels similarly authentic and solid.

Sahir and Benjamin interpret their roles as highly contemporary figures, with Sahir even rolling her eyes and presenting a suite of modern gestures for a character struggling with 1966 mores.

And Garcia’s Ida, a font of misery, becomes tiresome and one-note because of her bile.

But an assessment of individual strengths almost misses the point of “Rosette.” A work like this has the burden of introducing a culture while also telling a truthful, grounded story. And it does it with growing confidence.

When: 7:30 p.m. Fri. & Sat., 2 p.m. Sun.

Where: Mixed Blood Theatre, 1501 S. 4th St., Mpls.

Tickets: $15-$35. newarabamericantheaterworks.org.