It’s Mama’s birthday, but… Maryem and Roula are in jail. On top of that, they’re shawarma restaurant is under siege by a ruthless businessman named Narendra… who’s also their uncle.
Are they criminals, or angels in disguise (albeit a very good disguise)?
It’s satire and song for an apocalyptic age, as the material describes it, tackling cultural stereotypes that have a particular resonance in today’s world.
Can comedy and music take on sensitive subjects? In the right hands, of course it can. That’s the premise of Very Shady Arab Ladies, a comedy with music that’s on stage starting on July 3 as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Maryem Tollar & Roula Said
Very Shady Arab Ladies is the brainchild of FAOC (Friggin Arab Orchestra Company), or Maryem Tollar and Roula Said.
Egyptian-Canadian vocalist and actor Maryem Tollar is a multi-faceted artist known for not only her own work, but her collaborations with ensembles like Tafelmusik for the multimedia performance of Tales and Tales of Two Cities: The Leipzig-Damascus Coffee Houses and Safe Haven. She has collaborated with composer Christos Hatzis, performing his piece Syn-Phonia — Migration Patterns with The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Inuit throat singer Tiffany Ayalik, and his multimedia piece Constantinople with The Gryphon Trio and Patricia O’Callaghan.
She received the inaugural Johanna Metcalf Prize for Performing Arts in 2019.
Viewers will recognize her voice from the theme of CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie, and A.R. Rahman’s Bollywood movie Mayya Mayya.
Singer, dancer, musician, actor and poet Roula Said has become a leading figure in Arab music and dance in Canada over a career that spans 25 years. Roula, who is of Palestinian heritage, has also studied and explored multiple genres and styles of performance in dance and music.
She has been nominated for a JUNO Award as a vocalist, and is a passionate educator as well as performer. She has been teaching Middle Eastern dance for three decades.
As someone who’s art interweaves poetry, movement, and music — which can serve as performance, but also as ceremony — she also works as an End of Life Doula, and officiates weddings.
Dora-winning actor HRH Anand Rajaram adds to the cast as Narendra, the scheming business man,/uncle and directs the comedy/musical/satire.
As it turns out, both Said and Tollar also have a gift for comedy. The pair also has a track record under the name FAOC with the hit show Beige Christmas, which was also presented at Video Cabaret Theatre in December.
The Interview
“Roula and I have been doing short little video clips for this comedy duo we have,” Maryem recalls. That was back during the pandemic. “At one point, we though it would be a good idea to do a movie.”
The ideas kept developing, but in the meantime, the pair put together a holiday show.
“It was called Beige Christmas,” Tollar says. “I had no idea how this would go, because up to this point, we had just done video.” It played at Video Cabaret for several shows in December 2024, and went over so well they’re thinking of making Beige Christmas an annual event.
With the show’s success, and their connection with HRH Anand Rajaram, who became artistic director of Video Cabaret earlier this year, the idea of a live theatrical version of Ladies began to take shape.
The comedy comes from the close relationship the two share.
“Our friendship just naturally goes there,” Said adds. “We naturally go into these characters with accents.”
She says the characters they’ve created are a kind of hodgepodge of aunties, grandmothers, and other familiar figures. “In this comical way that helps us process the world. During the pandemic, we found that our foolish commentary was cathartic to other people as well. We just kind of carried on.”
Very Shady Arab Ladies: The Story
“The story is that there is a family business called Shawarma King that our characters work at,” Roula explains.
The backstory is that the business had been called Shawarma Queen, but on the death of their father, who owned the business, his brother took over. Just as the two women are about to regain the business in their own names, he sells it to a friend, pulling the rug out from under their plans.
It becomes the catalyst for the series of events, with a subplot that crosses paths with a group of revolutionaries who hang out in Toronto’s underground tunnels.
“And then we do end up in jail,” Said adds.
As Maryem explains, the comedy came out of a reaction to events in the world, and at first, even attempting a show seemed out of place.
“We were not feeling great about the world, and the situation in Palestine,” Roula says. “Why would we do a show when all these terrible things are happening?”
But, the community of performance, and sharing their feelings, proved a better idea.
“We need to come together,” Tollar says, “and feel bad — but also have some joy together in our lives.”
Finding the elements of joy became their goal. “To not ignore it, but find a way to just be together and find a way to talk about it.”
“It’s kind of a clownish comedy,” Roula says. “It also allows an engagement with darker energies that maybe it helps metabolize, as we are all dealing with a lot right now. It’s so insane.” As she points out, it’s using the lens of absurdity to look at a situation that begins with its own edge of absurdity. “We definitely have a context in our world.”
The nature of the characters also allows them to incorporate that joy. “And try to celebrate our Moms. And joy. “
A Commentary
The story incorporates themes that are less obvious. “It’s also a commentary on patriarchy, and when men are in charge,” Maryem says.
Roula points out the story takes a critical lens to the status quo, where money rules, and ruthless competition is considered the norm. It’s capturing many ideas that are making headlines and dominating social media posts today.
“The end times energy that is here now,” Said says. People are looking for salvation to somehow come out of nowhere. “We’re weaving in some of those themes.”
There’s also something innocent about the clownish behaviour of the two protagonists.
“We’re also trying to say, even from jail, from wherever you are, each of us has power,” Maryem adds. “We’re trying to bring all of these things into this story.”
A Comedy With Music
“I wouldn’t say music is the centre of it,” Roula says. “There’s music and it’s really fun.”
“We have a […] a song called Shawarma Whore,” Tollar say. “We have a song called Let Love Colonize Your Heart — written by Dave Hall — a spiritual revival kind of song,” she adds.
The two live musicians also become characters who are central to the play. The full cast includes: HRH Anand Rajaram, Roula Said, Maryem Tollar, Tim Gentle, Joska Tollar, and Ernie Tollar.
Everyone performs the music.
Very Shady Arab Ladies at Toronto Fringe
Performances begin July 3 at the VideoCabaret — Deanne Taylor Theatre
- Find tickets [HERE].
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