Noura: A Poignant Modern Drama 

The Old Globe presents a stunning 2019/20 of groundbreaking pieces and West Coast premiere works, including the debut of Heather Raffo's thought-provoking drama Noura. A poignant portrait of motherhood, marriage and what it means to have a home, the play first premiered in New York in 2018 and earned rave reviews for its parallels with Ibsen's A Doll's House as well as complex yet vivid characterisations and an insightful storyline. 

It follows a family of Chaldean Christians forced to flee their lives in the ISIS stronghold of Mosul or face religious persecution. Once happy and prosperous in Iraq, Noura and her husband Tareq struggle to assimilate - she was once an architect and he a surgeon, and both are forced to work at low paying jobs or face unemployment. Renamed Nora on her American passport, the titular character wants nothing to do with the rugged individualism of the American Dream if it means isolation, a lack of community and the loss of identity itself...